Safe & Sound
by charrrr
Summary: When Trace was 6, he met his soulfinder. When he was 16, she was taken away from him. Now he is 25 and he finds out in one of the worst ways possible that she came back to town for him. But she didn't come back alone. Will Trace be able to handle having this new little person around? He feels like his world is breaking around him... And then he finds out his soulfinder might die.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: Hi! Some of you might remember me from writing a few other Finding Sky stories. I was previously in the middle of writing 'Glamorous Grace' and 'Captivating Camille', but I haven't updated them in a while because my notebook broke. I have a new laptop now and tried to get back into writing them two stories, however I struggled to do so, and after re-reading them, I wasn't very happy with my writing in those stories. I feel I can do better._

_So, I decided to put them two stories on hold and start a new story. I don't know if I'll ever actually continue them two, but I might try in the future sometime. Or not. I don't know yet. Probably not. I kind of like the idea of starting my own little Finding Sky series by writing a story for each of the brothers. _

_But for now, this is Trace's story and I hope you like it. Please leave reviews if you are interested in reading more so I know whether I should update or not. _

_Charlotte xo_

* * *

**September 1993**

"Tracy, Tracy, what are you drawing? A pretty pink dress you like?" Six year old Connor Jones teased his classmate during Art, the first lesson of the day. Connor - a chubby, dark haired little boy - had always been a little 'bratty' and a bully, which was probably down to the fact his parents neglected him a lot and preferred to drink alcohol than spend time with him. He took his anger out on other children, getting a thrill out of upsetting them instead of letting it be the other way around. Connor's friends laughed at his little joke, despite having heard similar ones every day.

Trace Benedict, the victim of their endless teasing, turned bright red and looked up from the table he sat at on his own. "No," he defended himself, forcing himself not to cry in front of them like the last time. "I'm drawing a picture of a motorbike, it's for my new baby brother, Xavier." He smiled, a proud tone in his voice.

"Ha! Gay boy," Connor retorted with a snort. "You're such a girl, Tracy!"

"Who's such a girl?" Connor, Trace, and Connor's friends turned when they heard the sweet, delicate female voice. Georgeanne Carter, the new girl, was tall for her age, with straight dark blonde hair, grey eyes, and dimples in her cheeks. She was looking at the boys, her head tilted to the side questioningly.

"Him. " Connor pointed at Trace, a boy with dark hair and chocolate brown eyes, caramel coloured skin and a tall, lanky body for his age. "He's called Trace, which is a stupid name. It sounds like Tracy, which means he's a girl."

"But he looks like a boy to me," Georgeanne pointed out.

"I _am_ a boy!" Trace said, embarrassed.

Connor laughed and said, "no, you're not. Shut up, Tracy! Get back to drawing your stupid motorbike for your stupid bro-"

His voice cut off as he was shoved forward and fell backwards onto the floor, landing flat on his bum. It was him that turned red this time, not Trace - who, by the way, was now sat with an amused grin on his face - as he looked up at Georgeanne and exclaimed, "you pushed me!"

"Yes, I did," she nodded. "My daddy said I shouldn't be nice to bullies, or let them be mean to other people. Leave Trace alone, he's not a girl. You're a bully. I think Trace has a cool name, the name a superhero might have. I'll hit you next time, if I see you being mean to Trace again, okay?"

Connor just nodded, got up silently and walked away, his friends quickly following behind him like little lost sheep.

Georgeanne smiled at Trace and sat next to him, shocking him: nobody had ever chosen to sit next to him before, they all avoided him as if he were invisible. "Hiya," she said as she settled into the seat. "I'm Georgeanne, but my daddy calls me Georgie, which I like more, so you can call me that."

"I'm Trace," he replied shyly, slightly intimidated by this girl.

"Do you want to be my best friend? I've never had a best friend before, but it seems like it would be nice to have one like the people in the movies I watch."

"Um... Okay," he smiled happily. _"I've never had a best friend either,"_ he said telepathically to her. He only realised his mistake when he saw Georgie's eyes widen. His mom and dad always told him to only talk like that to family because people at school don't have powers!

"You have powers? Me too! Daddy says it's because I'm something called a savant,"

she replied, also telepathically.

Trace didn't understand. He'd spoken that way to his parents, cousins, and grandparents before, but none of their voices had felt as bright and special as Georgie's did. Was it because they weren't related, which made them different? Or was it like in the bedtime fairytale story his mom told him where he found a beautiful princess that was his magical soulfinder, and they'd live happily ever after?

Whilst thinking about this, he moved his favourite crayons - which he normally never shared with anybody - into the centre of the table so Georgie could use them if she wanted. After all, they were best friends now, he should share everything with her, he decided.

He didn't understand why Georgie's voice had sounded different in his head, and came to the conclusion that he would just have to ask his mom after school.

* * *

Trace had told Karla about Georgie while his mom was doing the washing up. In her shock, she had dropped a plate and smashed it. She hadn't had a vision of her first born son finding his soulfinder at such a young age, and wondered why she hadn't predicted the little girl's arrival into their family. Despite her frustration at not having seen this before it happened, she was thrilled. Trace would never have to go through the pain of growing up not knowing where or who his soulfinder was, like many savants before him had to do.

Trace never stopped talking about Georgie whenever he got home from school; he was obsessed with the girl! He'd asked about why her voice had sounded different in his mind, and Karla lied and said she didn't know. Her and Saul had come to the conclusion that they should tell Trace and Georgie at the same time, with Georgie's parents present, considering how serious and monumentally life-changing for the two young six year olds the truth was. Unfortunately, when Karla had managed to get in touch with Georgie's father, she had found out that Georgie's mother was no longer with them. However, her father agreed with Karla that they should tell the kids together and arranged a meeting with the Benedict's.

There was something about Mark Carter that Karla didn't like, although she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. He looked and acted like any other normal and ordinary man, and he seemed like a great single father, but Karla still sensed something off about him. However she put this to the back of her mind for the sake of the children and invited Mark and Georgie over on Saturday morning, much to Trace's delight.

By the time they got there, Xavier had just fallen asleep after Karla sang to him for an hour straight and Uriel and Victor were occupied in their bedroom watching a movie. This made it easy for the adults, Trace and Georgie to settle down in the living room. The children squashed onto the black leather chair together, giggling and whispering quietly like children do.

"I am so glad you agreed to come over, Mark," Karla started the conversation. "This is obviously a great thing for our children. They'll have each other their whole lives now; I just hope my other sons end up this lucky."

Mark nodded and said, "yes, I think it's brilliant as well. Trace seems like a fine young boy, I'm sure he'll grow to take care of my daughter properly."

"I'll make sure of it," Saul chuckled. "So we're in an agreement that we'll allow the children to be in each other's lives from now on then?"

Mark paused for a moment before answering. "Yes, yes, of course. Look, I don't mean to be rude, but can we just get this over with? Georgie and I have some errands to run and some shopping to do."

Karla tried not to narrow her eyes, she really did, but she couldn't help herself: she really didn't like Mark, despite knowing that he was now a part of her life. Without thinking first, she opened her mouth to reply with a snarky remark, but Saul knew his wife all too well and spoke before she could say something she would regret later. "Of course, we understand," he nodded. "Trace, Georgie- We need to talk to you both about something very serious, so please settle down, okay?"

Trace and Georgie both recognized the authorative tone in his voice and fell silent, their eyes appraising the adults curiously. "What's wrong, dad? Are we in trouble?" Trace asked.

"No son, you're not," Saul said, shaking his head. "Georgie, what do you know about soulfinders?" He asked, already knowing that Trace knew the gist of what the term meant.

Georgie tilted her head to the side, pursing her lips, her grey eyes somehow looking older than her six years. "What's a soulfinder?"

Karla took a breath to reign in her anger which was directed not towards the little girl, but her father. How could he not tell his daughter about soulfinders? Yes, it must be rough being a single father, but Georgeanne had a right to know she had a perfect soulmate in the world!

Karla came up with an explanation that would make sense to a six year old. "Well honey, every savant has a soulfinder. Saul is my soulfinder," she gestured towards her husband who was sat beside her. "A soulfinder is a special friend. When you find your soulfinder, your whole life seems better and easier, and you are friends with that person for life."

"Wow, I'd really like a friend for life. That's like, forever!"

"Yes, it is!" Karla nodded, smiling. "And you know if a person is your soulfinder because they are your age and sound different in your mind."

"Mom, Georgie sounds different in my mind! That's what I was trying to tell you!" Trace exclaimed.

Karla chuckled and said, "I know, I know, darling. This is why we needed to talk to you both... Trace, Georgie: you're soulfinders."

"I knew it!" Trace grinned at his mother before looking at Georgie. "You're my princess; we'll be friends forever and ever!"

Georgie grinned back, her dimples prominent in her cheeks, before looking at Karla again. "I once got told by daddy that these two people I saw kissing were special friends and about to get married. Does that mean me and Trace have to kiss and get married when we're grown up?"

Karla and Saul both laughed, but Mark clearly didn't share their amusement. He frowned and snapped, "no, it doesn't. You have a choice, Georgie; being his soulfinder doesn't mean you have no choice but to marry him, okay?"

Mark and Georgie left not long after that, due to an awkward stop to the conversation. Trace went to join his brothers in watching a movie, leaving his parents alone in the living room.

Saul wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders and pulled her close to him, kissing her forehead. "That went well. The kids seem happy together."

"Yeah," she nodded in agreement. "But Mark is... Difficult. I don't know, I just don't like him. I think he's hiding something. I reckon he's going to create trouble around here..."


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's note: Thank you for the reviews on chapter one, I loved reading them so much!_

butterflylion14_ pointed out to me in her review that I forgot to include Will in chapter one, which I apologize for. I have no idea how or why I forgot him. Let's just say that baby Will was sleeping or something, haha._

_This chapter is set years later when they are 15. The next chapter will be set in 2003, then after that, the rest of the story will be in present time with the occasional flashbacks. The first three chapters were set in the past so you had an understanding of their background :-)_

_I hope you like this chapter, please leave reviews with your thoughts and feedback; I appreciate it so much._

_Charlotte xo_

* * *

**December 2002**

By the age of fifteen, both Trace and Georgeanne had developed completely different personalities.

Trace was the boy at school that mostly everybody loved now: he was kind, helpful, quiet in class, and just a genuinely down-to-earth guy. He never bullied anybody; in fact, he had started up an anti-bullying policy at school after he got sick of seeing bullying and made a presentation to the headteacher about the policy he wanted to create. He always participated in fundraiser's, and volunteered to be part of a group of students that tutored younger students. He always got top marks in class but wasn't arrogant about it, and never got in trouble with the teachers.

Georgie however, was the the girl at school that mostly everybody was scared of: she was tough, sarcastic, bitter and unpredictable. She helped Trace out with his anti-bullying campaign, but instead of talking to the bully calmly like Trace would, Georgie would most likely punch the bully. She was only defending others, yes, but her attitude and behaviour led people to avoid her as if she were the plague; Trace was the only friend she had, really. She didn't really care for school and didn't pay much attention, causing her to not get grades as high as Trace's.

Despite their obvious differences, however, they were still the best of friends and were each hiding developing feelings of love for one another. Georgie still stopped people from bullying Trace and calling him a geek like they would if anybody else helped out at school so much, and Trace tried to help Georgie with his school work as much as he could, although she made it hard for him to do that when she was so disinterested.

Today, they had finished school and gone straight to Trace's house. They were now in his bedroom - Trace was sat at his desk working on homework, whilst Georgie was laid on her back in the middle of his bed with her headphones on. She was singing along loudly to the song playing - Busted's 'what I go to school for' - and waving her hands around as if she were playing the drums.

_"You should be doing your homework," _Trace said to her telepathically, knowing that if he spoke out loud, she wouldn't hear him.

_"How about you do it for me?" _She replied, a nonchalant amusement in her voice.

_"No, I've told you before: I'll help you, but I'm not doing it for you. How are you ever going to learn if you don't do your homework or listen in class? With low grades, you won't get into a good college."_

She scoffed out loud, then talked into his mind again. _"You sound just like my dad! I had this same exact conversation with him yesterday. I have a few years before I need to focus on getting grades for college. Besides, I won't need the grades if I don't want to go to college."_

The smile fell from Trace's face in his shock. He had never heard Georgie say that she didn't plan on ever going to college. Well, at least she was keeping up with her habit of constantly surprising him; there was never a dull moment with her around. He turned his chair around, away from his desk, so that he could face Georgie. _"Take out your headphones," _he told her.

She sighed loudly, but did as she was told. Georgie knew what this next conversation was going to be about and although she didn't want to discuss it, she knew that Trace would keep on persisting and bugging her until she spilled the beans. "What, Trace?" She sighed.

"You don't want to go to college?" He asked quietly. "Why not? And why am I only hearing of this now?" Trace couldn't deny that it upset him that she hadn't talked to him about this. This was a big decision, why wouldn't she ask him for his opinion or just confide in him about her thoughts?

"You're only hearing of this now because I knew that you'd try and talk me out of it," she sighed and sat up. "Trace, this is my decision. I don't want to go to college- School's bad enough, do you really think I'd be able to cope with higher education?"

"I'd help you, Georgie. You know that."

She nodded. "I know, Trace. But I can't rely on you for everything, whether you're my soulfinder or not. I need to be independent. There might come a time in my life where you're not there for whatever reason, and I'll need to do something myself. And I just don't want to go to college... you know I'm not a studious person."

"Well, what do you want to do with your life? What job do you want to have in the future?" He pressed on.

"I have no idea," she shrugged. "Don't look at me like that! We're fifteen, Trace! How does anybody expect to actually know what we want to do with our lives?"

"I'm going to study to be a lawyer, I know that."

"But that's not what you want, that's not your dream job and we both know that. You're going to be a lawyer because everybody tells you that's what you should be. But you know what I think? I think you're a coward, Trace Benedict. You're too scared of what people will think if you become a policeman like you want to be; so scared that you're willing to live a life doing a job that your heart isn't fully into. So don't judge me for deciding not to go to college when you won't follow your dream. Going to college actually sounds like hell to me, and I'm not scared of what people will say about me, so I'm not going to put myself through that."

She sounded so... Adult. Like she was older than fifteen and had experienced much more in life. Trace marveled at how he hadn't even noticed how much she had actually grown up. She had been in his life for as long as he could remember, a permanent figure: he hadn't even noticed how much she had been changing into a decent, thoughtful young lady. He just hoped she didn't lose the cheeky rebellious side of herself that he loved so much.

"I'm guessing you haven't told your dad about this yet," he chuckled, choosing not to argue with her on this. She was right, you see, about him being a coward and not following his dreams. And he realised that she had clearly thought about college a lot, it wasn't just a rash decision that she had made in the space of two minutes. He couldn't control her life and even if he wanted to - which he didn't - there was no way Georgie would let him do so. He wasn't even her boyfriend, just her best friend, which gave him even less of a chance to make decisions for her. "He's definitely not going to be happy."

'Not going to be happy' was the understatement of the year. Mark was a strict father. If Georgie wasn't home by eight, he would call the Benedict's straight away: if she was there, he'd pick her up as soon as possible, if she wasn't, he called the police. She was constantly grounded and made to do chores for her behaviour at school, and he never let her go out to parties and such. And for some reason, he hated Trace. Mark disliked Georgie hanging out with Trace, even though he knew that they were soulfinders.

Everything was always so tense in their house, even more so when Trace was around, so Georgie preferred to spend more time at the Benedict's than her own home. She loved her father, of course she did, but his overprotective nature was extremely annoying, whether he had good intentions or not.

"Of course I haven't told him," Georgie laughed. "I'm thinking of keeping it a secret until everyone starts actually applying for college. Gives him less time to persuade me to go. Hell, he'd drag me there himself if he could."

Trace laughed whilst he stood up and moved over to the bed, sitting down next to Georgie. "No doubt he'll find some way to blame me."

"God, I know," Georgie sighed and fell backwards so that she was laid on her back again. Trace copied her and they turned their heads so they were looking into each others eyes. "I wish he'd accept you into the family, he's had all these years to get used to you being around. He's such an idiot."

"Well, yeah, he is..." Trace winked. "But he's not all bad. You're the only person he has in his life, his only family, I guess he's just scared of losing you. He doesn't want to see you get hurt. But, as much as he dislikes me, he doesn't stop us from being together unless he has a serious reason to. And I think that once he's got over his anger over this college thing, he'll do anything he can to help you follow your dreams. Once you figure out what they are, of course."

Georgie laughed and said, "if that ever happens, that is... Thank you, Trace. For not completely freaking out about college, I totally thought you would."

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence in me! I'm more upset about the fact you and I always said we'd go to college together, that we'd never be apart. Remember? On my thirteenth birthday, we promised each other that we'd never be apart and if something separated us, we'd find our back to each other. If you don't come to college with me, we won't be together as often as we are now. Since we met, I've seen - or at least spoke - to you every single day."

"And that doesn't have to change," she said softly. "Forever and ever, remember? You just try and get rid of me, you'll have a tough time doing so."

"I don't think I'd ever even try to get rid of you, I need you too much," he admitted quietly.

Their eyes met: brown to grey. And then something changed between them; an electricity began to spark between them, the soulfinder bond pulsing with energy and pulling them even closer together like magnets attracting. Before they knew it, their lips were pressed against each other, and they had turned on their sides to hold each other's waists. It wasn't cliché; it wasn't magical and fairytale-like; it wasn't life-altering or something you'd seen in a movie.

It was just a kiss. An ordinary kiss that wasn't any different than another.

It was the feelings behind the kiss that made it memorable. Over the years, their friendly love for each other had developed into much more, yet neither of them ever talked about it or acted upon it. They were soulfinders... and they were madly in love. That love was shown through the kiss and it warmed their hearts, filled their entire being with longing and want.

Neither of them ever wanted the kiss to end but of course it had to eventually; they had to breathe at some point.

They were both breathing heavily when their lips finally parted, and they rested their foreheads against each other, smiling. "Wow," Georgia mumbled. "That was the best first kiss ever."

"I agree," Trace replied quietly.

Knock, knock, knock.

The tap on Trace's bedroom door startled them, bringing them out of their little bubble and back into reality. They quickly sat up, arranging themselves so that they each had a headphone in their ear, making it look like they had just been casually listening to music and not kissing.

"Yeah, come in!" Trace shouted.

The door opened a little and Karla popped her head around the door, a huge grin on her face. "Georgie, your father just called; he's on his way to pick you up. And by the way, I am so happy for you both! You finally kissed, you're so perfect together!"

"Mom," Trace groaned. "You promised you wouldn't read our minds."

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes. "Honey, it's hard not to read your mind when your thoughts are screaming out 'oh my god, I'm finally kissing her'. Don't blame me, Trace. Georgie, you should start getting your things ready to go."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks Karla," Georgie smiled, holding in her joyous laughter at Trace's thoughts.

Karla smiled and closed the door behind her. "She's so embarrassing," Trace moaned.

Georgie giggled and said, "your mother is lovely, be quiet." She used telekinesis to move her bag and coat from the floor and into her lap. "Anyway, I have a new favourite song, you totally need to hear this..."

When Mark arrived, a mere ten minutes later, Georgie gathered her things and went to leave. Before she left Trace's bedroom however, Trace made sure to kiss her one more time, leaving a giddiness inside both of them and smiles on their faces.


	3. Chapter 3

**14th February 2003**

Laid naked in Georgie's bed, the couple were in a serene, contented state. Georgie's head was on Trace's chest, the fingers of his left hand were linked with Georgie's on his stomach and he was trailing the fingers of his right hand slowly up and down her spine. They had just made love to each other for the first time, and neither could remember ever being this happy in their entire lives.

It was Valentine's Day and Georgie's sixteenth birthday. Trace's sixteenth had been just the day before. Since they started dating a year ago, they agreed to hold off from having sex until they were sixteen, but they hadn't made any conclusive plans at all. What had just happened had been completely unexpected, something that just happened in the moment, but neither one of them regretted it.

Georgie gently kissed Trace's chest and sighed happily. "I love you, Trace."

"I love you too," he replied, a smile unmoving on both of their faces. "You never told me if you like your birthday present or not, you just decided to attack me with kisses and seduce me into your bed instead."

She giggled and looked down at the necklace around her neck that he had given her for her birthday. It was a thin silver chain, with a silver T dangling from it and a small, diamond-encrusted heart. "To remind you of me, and to let everybody else know that you're mine," he had said as he closed the clasp at the back of her neck.

"It's beautiful," Georgie said, lifting her head up so she could look at him. "Thank you. I promise to never take it off." Suddenly, they heard the front door of the house slam shut with a loud bang. "Oh shit, my dad's home early! Quick, get dressed!"

"Georgie!" They heard Mark shout as they quickly scrambled out of each other's grip and out of the bed. His footsteps could be heard heavy on the stairs as he stomped up them, clearly angry over something.

He opened Georgie's door without knocking first like he usually did. His eyes were so wide, they looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets as he saw the sight in front of him. Trace stood topless, the button on his jeans open. Georgie was stood in jeans and her purple bra, her face flushed red.

"Dad, it's not what it looks like," she said quickly, stepping to the side a little so she was stood in-between her father and Trace, just in case her dad's anger caused him to attack her boyfriend.

Mark ignored Georgie and looked over her shoulder at Trace. "Get. Out." His voice was even and flat but his fury was clearly evident in his voice and his face had gone pale white. "Now, Trace."

Trace knew that there was no arguing with him when he was like this and he had to admit, he had been scared of Mark his whole life. There was something about him that gave him the creeps; he was strict and powerful. He terrified Trace the majority of the time. So he knew that leaving was the best thing to do, to make Mark's anger fade just a little bit.

_"I'll phone you later," _he thought to Georgie. _"To make sure you're okay and that he hasn't killed you or anything. Happy birthday and happy Valentine's Day. I love you."_

_"I love you too,"_ she replied as Trace put on his shirt, gathered his things and left the room, heading downstairs to leave.

* * *

Trace tried calling Georgie a few hours later, but she didn't answer. Their houses were too far apart for him to use telepathy, so he couldn't contact her that way. He was worried about her- she normally always answered the phone, no matter what. He'd only been joking about Mark murdering her - he loved his daughter, it was clear in his overprotectiveness - and he knew that that wasn't even a possibility, but he'd seen how angry Mark was to find his daughter half naked with a boy, maybe he'd took the phone off Georgie or something, despite the fact he said she needed it at all times in case of an emergency?

Trace decided to go to the house instead. He parked his car on the other side of the street and looked at the house. The curtains were closed and there didn't seem to be any lights on which was unusual. Trace got a strange, uneasy feeling in his stomach, but he wasn't sure what it meant.

_"Georgie?" _He called out with his mind, but for some reason, he couldn't connect to hers. He knew that Mark's power was that he was a shield: he could stop telepathy and savant powers around him if he wanted to. Was part of his punishment stopping Georgie from talking to Trace in any way possible?

Trace frowned, got out of the car and locked it. He strode across the road and knocked on the Carter's front door. He concluded that it was about time he and Mark had a chat. Trace needed to reassure the man that would be his father-in-law one day that he would take care of Georgie and wouldn't hurt her. But he also needed to make it clear to Mark that he wasn't going anywhere, no matter how much he disliked him and tried to stop him from dating his daughter. He loved Georgie with all of his heart; he was nothing without her. And he needed to tell Mark that. Maybe, once they'd talked all of this through, Mark would finally accept that Trace and Georgie were dating and were planning on being together for the rest of their lives. Maybe.

He knocked on the door again and still, there was no reply. Whatever that strange feeling in his stomach was, it suddenly intensified.

Trace strode around to the side of the house and went through into the back yard. Looking up at Georgie's window, he noticed that her curtains were also closed, but the window was open just a little bit. He smiled. Georgie always left the window open like that so Trace could sneak in whenever he wanted- which he made sure to do at least two nights a week. The way up to her window was easy and familiar to him now. He stood on one of the patio's chair and reached up, grabbing hold of the strongest branch of the oak tree in the garden and, after some manoeuvring, he managed to pull himself up onto the branch, which just so happened to be right near Georgie's bedroom window. He pried the window fully open - it pushed up with a creak like it always did - and he climbed through, landing straight in Georgie's bedroom.

But as he looked around, it didn't look like her room anymore. Yes, her bed, desk and wardrobe were still there. Yes, her bookcase was still there, crammed with books. Yes, the walls were still decorated with photos of the two of them... but the room was still significantly different. Georgie's room had never been completely spotless, but there were more clothes on the floor now, and a glass ornament Georgie kept on her desk had been smashed against the wall, leaving glass sprinkled around like some sort of fairy dust. And Georgie's favourite photo of the couple - taken by his father last month at a Benedict family barbeque - where she was sat on his lap and they were both grinning at the camera, their eyes sparkling under the rare sunshine, was gone from its usual place on her bedside table.

Then Trace saw something silver on the floor out of the corner of his eye. He knelt down on his knees and picked it up- it was the charm bracelet Mark had given Georgie a few years ago. He'd told her that it had belonged to her mother, whom she didn't remember because she had died when Georgie was little, and Georgie had never taken it off once. So why would she do so now?

Trace closed his eyes and imagined every little detail of the bracelet in his mind, trying to get his power to come to use. Sometimes he saw the past from objects instantly, without even wanting to, but he had been practicing on seeing the past when he focused, when he wanted to see something. So he tried with the bracelet. He tried and he tried. And, twenty minutes later, just when he was losing hope and about to give up, he finally saw a flash of dark blonde hair in his mind; Georgie's hair. And suddenly, after that little spark, his mind went into the past...

_"Well, at least he had the good sense to leave," Mark snorted as Georgie put on her shirt. "What happened, Georgie?"_

_"I'm pretty sure you don't want the details," Georgie mumbled, too quiet for her father to hear. Louder, she said, "it doesn't matter, dad. What matters is that I love Trace and wish you could be nicer to him and get along with him."_

_"I catch you half naked with him and you want me to nicer to him?! Georgie, do you have any idea how stupid you sound right now?!" Mark shouted._

_"I don't care, daddy! I love him, I'm going to be with him for the rest of my life and there's nothing you can do to change that!" Georgie exclaimed, tears streaming down her face as, for the first time in her life, she argued with her dad without being scared of him._

_"Pack some clothes, Georgie. We're leaving town. As soon as possible."_

_Okay, _now_ she was scared. "What?" She cried out. "We're leaving town? Just because of Trace?"_

_"No," Mark shook his head. "It's not because of Trace, we'd be leaving anyway."_

_"Then why?!"_

_Mark paused and took a deep breath before shaking his head, as if in disbelief of the situation. "We're in some trouble, Georgie. An old enemy of mine has found us here. I picked Wrickenridge for us to live in because it's small and off the grid, but somehow they've found us. Which is why we have to leave."_

_Georgie looked at him as he were a stranger. She had no idea Mark had enemies, let alone that he had brought her here when she was younger because of an enemy. Why didn't he ever confide in her about this?_

_"Well, you leave then," she said spitefully. "I'll move in with the Benedict's. Karla and Saul said that I'm always welcome there, I'm sure they'd let me live with them. I don't want to leave, dad. Please don't make me leave Trace."_

_Mark sighed; he looked sad, unbelievably sad. "I'm so sorry, princess. I can't leave you here, my enemy will go after you to hurt me. Trace can't ever know where we're going, it's too dangerous. Georgie, I wish your life had been better than this; I wish that I didn't have to take you away from your soulfinder. And I understand if you hate me for this. But we're leaving. Today. And we're not coming back. Pack whatever you want to take, but not too much. You have half an hour and then we're going."_

_"Daddy, please..." She sobbed._

_Mark walked over and kissed her forehead, a lump stuck in his throat. "I love you, Georgie. And that's why I'm taking you away. Maybe one day you'll understand," he said, before leaving the room, closing the door softly behind him._

_Georgie fell to the floor, crying loudly. Her left hand took hold of the T of her necklace, squeezing it tightly. Then, she took the charm bracelet off her right wrist and quietly whispered, "I love you, Trace. Forever and ever. Remember the promise we made each other on your thirteenth birthday? We promised that if something separated us, we'd find our way back to each other... please wait for me, baby. I'll come to you, I promise."_

_She dropped the bracelet to the floor. She had complete and utter faith that Trace would find it and figure out that he should use his power. He just knew her so well. She liked to believe that he'd know she'd never leave town without leaving him a clue as to what happened._

_She took a deep breath, continued crying, and stood up to start packing._

Trace was lurched back into the present as he dropped the bracelet. Still knelt on the floor, he leant forward, burying his face in his hands. He couldn't believe it... Georgie was gone. Mark had finally succeeded in splitting them up. Trace started crying, sobbing his heart out. Crying seemed like the only thing to do right now.

He tried to imagine life without his soulfinder... and just couldn't. His life was going to be miserable from now on, an endless void that he just wished was over. Georgie was everything to him... he just couldn't see the point in anything anymore.

He suddenly realised what that strange feeling in the pit of stomach had been, because it felt even worse now, painfully so. It was heartbroken. Deep inside, he must have known that his soulfinder wasn't around anymore, that something devastating had happened.

It was Valentine's Day and Trace had finally made love to the love of his life... and then he'd had his heart broken.


	4. Chapter 4

**21st November 2012**

Trace was in a desolate mood as he stood in the elevator, which seemed to be moving upwards at an impossibly slow pace and stopping at every floor. He was in Wrickenridge Hospital, about to visit a lady who had been in a car crash.

Normally the police wouldn't deal with accidents such as car crashes, but apparently this was no accident. According to his boss, the Chief, a CCTV tape of the area - which Trace was yet to see - had showed the woman coming out of a newsagent's store, consequently getting into an argument with a man that had been stood by her car. It apparently looked as if she knew the man, and was clearly not very happy to see him. Once back in their cars, the woman started driving away, only for her car to be swerved off the road by the man's in a purposeful hit. The case was being treated as an attempted murder, and Trace was here to question the lady about who the man was, seeing as the police hadn't been able to identify him, despite their great resources. It was like he didn't even exist.

Trace hated jobs like these because he simply hated the outcome of the answers the police figured out. It always ended up being down to something petty, like a love affair gone wrong or something as silly as that. No doubt that's what this case would be about as well, he thought to himself bitterly.

He sighed and finally stepped out of the elevator, making his way to the reception desk of the Intensive Care Unit. The receptionist, a plump woman with dark hair, smiled at him in a flirty way, and asked, "how may I help you, sir?" She batted her eyelashes and pushed out her chest, aiming to get the attention of the handsome man dressed in a police uniform.

Trace forced himself to smile back, like he did with practically everybody he met, and flashed her his police badge and I.D. "Hello," he spoke. "My name is Trace Benedict. I'm the Deputy Chief of Police for the Wrickenridge and Denver Police Unit. I'm here in regards to a car crash victim. A twenty-five year old woman, I believe. Could you please tell me which room she is in?"

"Let me see..." She trailed off as she began typing a few things on her computer, searching the ICU's database for the young lady. "Ah, yes," she looked back up at Trace, still politely smiling. "You're looking for Georgeanne Carter. She's in room 12a."

Trace's heart literally skipped a beat and he stopped breathing for a moment. The world around him simply stopped, as if none of it mattered anymore, and he stuttered as he asked, "did- did you just say... Georgeanne C-C-Carter?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Is there a problem?"

"Uh, no... thank you."

He spun around on his feet, walking on shaking legs to room 12a. It must be a coincidence; it must be another Georgeanne Carter. His Georgeanne had promised to come back to him, but Trace had lost his faith in that promise as soon as he joined the police force. Because of course, one of the first things he did when he got the job, was search the database for Georgeanne and Mark Carter, but after they'd left Wrickenridge, there was no record of them. They'd disappeared - clearly so Mark could protect Georgie from whatever enemy was after them - and Trace now believed they'd be in hiding for the rest of their lives and he would never see Georgie again.

As he walked to the room, he kept on telling himself that it wasn't his Georgie to not get his hopes up, only to be disappointed... But it didn't work. His heart thudded like a incessant drum, threatening to pound out of his chest. He was barely breathing. His whole body was shaking in nervous anticipation.

If it was his Georgie, what would he say to her? Would it be a perfect reunion, one worthy for the movies? Or would she decide that she wanted nothing to do with him anymore?

He finally reached the room and took a deep breath before reaching his sweaty hand out to open the door, and took a few steps into the bright white room. Stood at the bottom end of the hospital bed, he slowly looked up from the ground and at the patient.

"Oh god," he said, his voice breaking and tears filling his eyes.

The woman obviously didn't look as young as sixteen anymore; her face had lost it's 'baby fat' and was now more angular than round. Her dark blonde hair was now cut in a short bob, framing her face perfectly. Her eyes were closed, long, dark eyelashes sweeping down. There were tubes going into her arm, an oxygen mask strapped to her face, and machines beeping around her. A few cuts on her face had been stitched up, and a bandage was wrapped around the top of her head.

Despite all of this however, there was no doubt about it: it was Georgie. Trace's soulfinder. After nine years, she had finally come back to him... and was now unconscious in a hospital.

He moved to stand beside her and gently ran his fingers down the side of her face and smiled a little. "You kept your promise," he whispered. "I'm sorry for ever losing faith in you."

"Can I help you?" A chirpy, female voice brought Trace out of his concentration on Georgie. "Officer?"

He turned and looked at the nurse who had just entered the room. She was a small woman, skinny, with blonde hair and green eyes. "Um, I came to ask Georgeanne a few questions about the crash. Deputy Benedict," he introduced himself, flashing her his badge.

She smiled at him and nodded. "I'm Nora Franks, Georgeanne's nurse. I'm sorry to tell you this, but Georgeanne had severe swelling to her brain so we have had to induce her into a coma to give her body a chance to recover and the swelling to reduce. You won't be able to ask her anything, I'm afraid."

A coma, Trace repeated to himself mentally, his heart hurting at the news. "Will she be okay? I'm sorry, it's just... I'm a friend of hers, it's personal to me, not just a job."

Nora smiled sympathetically and said, "it's hard to tell. It all depends on how she recovers. It could go well, and she could be fine. Or, it could come to the worst possibility... She could die."

"Right," Trace said, feeling numb. "Ok. Thank you, Nora. Um, am I okay to sit with her for a while? I don't want to leave her alone here."

"Of course it is," she nodded. "Although, considering you're a friend, maybe you could arrange care for her daughter? We tried contacting Georgeanne's father - her only emergency contact - but the number doesn't work. Social services are with the little girl right now, and unless someone close to Georgeanne provides care for the girl, she'll be put into temporary foster care, I'm afraid."

Trace stared at her, unable to respond for a moment. _Georgie had a daughter? _He couldn't believe it. He wondered who the father was and felt hurt that she had slept with someone else- he hadn't had sex with anybody since Georgie. Just the thought of doing so caused him pain. But Georgie had a daughter... That wasn't the only thing nagging at his thoughts, however. Mark would never change his number from the hospital records, just in case Georgie ever got hurt; he had always been over-protective. The Mark that Trace had known would have raced to the hospital as fast as he could. Trace could feel deep inside him that something was wrong; something worse than he could imagine. He just couldn't figure out what.

"Georgie's daughter, right," he nodded, pretending that he had already known. "Is she okay? Was she in the crash?"

"She was, yes. But she's fine, just a few scratches. She was very lucky. I can take you to her if you want?"

"Yes, please. That would be great."

Reluctantly, Trace left Georgie's room, following closely behind Nora. He didn't want to leave Georgie but in his mind, he knew that she would put her daughter before herself, and would want Trace to make sure she was okay.

Nora led Trace to what seemed like a room only for children. The walls were painted a bright yellow and were decorated by children's drawings; toys scattered the floor, flowing out of two large toy chests; small tables and chairs were arranged around the room, and teddy bears were placed in various spots in the room.

A woman was sat at a larger desk and chair - clearly for adults - with a laptop in front of her. She was in her mid-forties, with a tough, wrinkled face and chestnut hair pulled into a tight bun at the top of her head. Wearing a grey suit, she looked like a very intimidating businesswoman.

Sat at the red children's table closest to the woman was a little girl, wearing a white shirt that had sprinkles of blood on, and jeans. She had caramel coloured skin and chocolate brown curls that fell halfway down her back, and two lines of stitches on her forehead. She looked overly familiar to Trace, but he couldn't quite figure out why.

Both the woman and the girl looked towards the door as Nora and Trace entered the room, the door closing behind them with a soft click. Trace looked at the young girl's face and was startled to see Georgie's grey eyes staring back at him. The girl had a heart-shaped face and dimples in her cheeks.

"Mrs Wilson," Nora said to the older woman. "This is Deputy Trace Benedict. He's a friend of Miss Carter's."

Trace cleared his throat and said, "hey, it's nice to meet you."

Mrs Wilson stood up, revealing a medium height and curvy body. She walked over to the little girl and knelt down next to the table. "Gracie, honey, why don't you go over to the blue table over there and do some drawing? Us adults need to talk a bit."

"Fine," the little girl - Gracie, it seemed she was called - sighed. "If I draw a picture for my mum, can you make sure she gets it?"

"Of course," Mrs Wilson nodded and smiled.

Gracie stood up and Trace noticed she was tall and slim. She walked to the other side of the room whilst Mrs Wilson walked towards Nora and Trace. "Mr Benedict," she said, holding her hand out to shake his. "Lovely to meet you. Now, I assume you're here about Gracie?"

"Yes, I'd like to take her home with me," Trace said, only realising what he had said after he had actually said it. He took himself by surprise but he knew that it was the right thing to do, not just because it's what Georgie would want, but because it was better than Gracie going into temporary foster care until Georgie was well enough to take care of her again.

Mrs Wilson however, didn't seem surprised as she dealt with things like this regularly. "Okay," she nodded. "Now, with Miss Carter unconscious and unable to have a say in this, we have to do background checks and evaluate the homes of whoever is going to take care of the child, just to make sure she's safe. Unless it's family, of course, but you aren't."

Trace said, "okay. So when can she come and stay with me?"

"It should take a few days to get all of the paperwork and checks completed." She stopped talking for a moment, a frown appearing on her face. She was obviously lost in her own thoughts, trying to remember something. "Actually..." She finally spoke. "That might not be needed, she might be able to go home with you straight away. Just give me a moment."

Confused, Trace watched her go back over to her desk and start tying a few things into her laptop. He walked towards her so that when she spoke, Gracie wouldn't hear, just in case it was something bad.

Mrs Wilson nodded and smiled up at Trace. "I knew I'd seen your name somewhere. Mr Benedict, I have a copy of Gracie's birth certificate here and it seems like Miss Carter put you down as Gracie's father."

Trace looked at her in shock, before looking across the room at Gracie. "That can only be possible if she's nine years old..." His voice trailed off as he viewed the little girl, who was immersed in her drawing. Instead of her mother's creamy complexion, Gracie had Trace's caramel-coloured skin. Her chestnut brown hair was the same as Trace's, and she had high cheekbones just like him. He realised why she seemed familiar to him earlier: she looked like him.

As if reading his thoughts, Mrs Wilson said, "she looks a lot like you, Mr Benedict. And yes, Gracie is nine years old; she was born on the 6th of November 2003."

Trace couldn't believe it. The dates and Gracie's appearance all added up: she was his daughter. He was a dad! At this news, a large part of him was furious with Georgie. How could she keep this from him? Yes, she was hiding from her father's enemy, but surely she could have found a way to tell him that he had a daughter. They'd used protection on their last night together - the first and only time they made love - but he wasn't an idiot; he knew it didn't always work. He deserved to know that he was a dad, and he was angry that Georgie hadn't told him.

"Well," Mrs Wilson continued, oblivious to Trace's thoughts. "Whether she truly is your daughter or not, you can take her home today considering you're named her father on her birth certificate. Why don't you go and talk to her?"

Speechless, he nodded and walked over to the little girl. _His_ little girl. He knelt by the side of her table so he was on the same level as her and smiled when she looked at him. "Hey, Gracie," he said gently. "My name is Trace. So, listen, your mum has been in a serious accident so you're going to have to come and stay with me for a little bit, okay? I'm a friend of your mum's, I promise to take good care of you."

"Can I see my mum?" She asked, her eyes ringed with red from crying earlier.

"Not right now," he shook his head, not sure if Gracie should see her mum connected to so many different tubes and wires. "Why don't we go back to my apartment and you can have something to eat, then you can get some sleep and we'll talk some more tomorrow? How does that sound?"

"Okay," Gracie nodded, her expression stubborn just like her mother's always used to be. "But I'm not going to stop asking about my mum, we'll talk about it tomorrow. I mean it."

Trace smirked, pleased with how much Gracie resembled Georgie. "I understand. Shall we go then?"

* * *

_Author's note: So, the stuff about Georgie's injury and how Social Services dealt with the situation are made up. I have no idea what S.S would actually do, or how doctor's treat injuries like that. How I wrote it just fits in with how the story is going, so yeah :-)_

_Hope you liked the chapter, please leave reviews!_

_And Merry Christmas, hope you all had a brilliant day and that Santa brought you everything you wanted ;)_

_Charlotte xo_


	5. Chapter 5

**22nd November 2012**

Trace didn't get any sleep at all last night. He had let Gracie sleep in his bed seeing as his apartment only had one bedroom, and he himself had settled down onto the sofa. He was desperate for sleep, but it just didn't come.

There were so many things he wanted and needed to know. But most importantly, who had hurt Georgie? The Chief had sent him the CCTV tape via e-mail; Trace had been expecting the man to be Mark for some bizarre reason, but it wasn't. He had no idea who the man was. He'd never seen him before in his entire life, which meant Georgie must have met him sometime in the last nine years. Trace was determined to find out and get revenge on the man who had hurt his soulfinder, the mother of his child.

He stopped trying to sleep at about 7am and dragged himself off the sofa. After phoning the hospital to check on Georgie, and being told that there had been no changes, he walked into the kitchen, filled the kettle and switched it on. If he wanted to get through today without collapsing or having an emotional breakdown, he needed coffee. He couldn't function without his coffee.

Once his coffee was done, he turned around and leant his back against the counter, taking a gentle sip and burning his tongue in the process. Just a moment later, Gracie walked into the kitchen, rubbing her red eyes. She was in the same clothes as yesterday seeing as Trace had nothing for her to change into, and looked like she had spent the majority of the night crying instead of sleeping.

"Morning Gracie," Trace said. "So, you didn't sleep much either?"

Gracie shook her head. Trace wasn't that surprised about her not talking. She hadn't spoke much last night either, just short answers to the questions he asked, not asking anything herself. She walked over and sat at the kitchen table, looking around awkwardly.

"You want some breakfast?" Again, she didn't speak; just nodded her head. "I only have cornflakes, is that okay?" Nod. "Do you want a drink too?" She shook her head. "Ok then, cornflakes it is," he said and started getting her breakfast.

Once she was eating, he sat down across from her and took a drink of his coffee, and then another seeing as it wasn't too hot anymore, savouring the horrible taste of the drink that kept him going. "So, what do you remember about yesterday, Gracie?" He asked, trying to sound as casual as possible and get her talking.

She shrugged and said, "it was only our second day after moving here. Mum said we had to go to the shop, then she wanted to visit somebody she used to know. She was really happy, but nervous as well. Then she was arguing with some strange guy, and then the accident happened. She wouldn't wake up... I screamed at her to wake up, but she wouldn't." Tears filled her eyes and she let out a little sob, before attempting to control herself.

Trace inwardly cursed: he had been hoping that Gracie might have known the man, but it turns out she didn't. He wondered if he was the person Georgie had been on her way to see; he hoped so. Gracie continued to cry so Trace moved around the table, kneeling next to her and rubbing her back. He felt like he didn't know what to do, like he was horrible around kids, which didn't make sense considering he'd been there whilst all of his brothers were growing up. He guessed this was different because it was his daughter, not brother, that he was interacting with.

"Hey, shhh," he said gently, trying to comfort her. "I'm sure your mum's going to be okay, she's a strong lady. And I'm going to find the man who hurt her and make sure he goes to prison, okay?"

"Okay," she mumbled and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Are you a policeman? You were wearing a police uniform yesterday."

"I am, yes," he nodded.

"Will you find my grandpa?"

Trace froze. "What do you mean? Mark didn't move here with you?"

"No," she shook her head. "He went out one day and never came back. Mum got scared and said we had to leave so we came here. Will you find my grandpa? Please?"

"I'll try my best," he promised, sighing as he realised there were even more things unknown to him to do with the case. "Right, why don't you eat the rest of your breakfast, then I'll take you shopping so you can get some clothes to wear while you're staying with me?"

"Can't I just go home?" She pouted. Trace's heart melted a little at the pout; Georgie had always done that to him to get what she wanted, knowing it worked on him every time. And Gracie was no exception to this- her pout was adorable, and he didn't want to say no to her. "I have all my things there. We can stay there until mum's better."

"Okay," he nodded. "There's just one problem: I don't have a key to your mum's place."

Gracie grinned, her tears momentarily forgotten. "That's okay. Mum always makes sure I have a key," she grabbed hold of a chain around her neck and pulled it out from under her t-shirt, revealing a key dangling from it. "She said it was in case of emergencies."

Trace grinned back at her.

* * *

Their house was in a nice, friendly neighbourhood that Trace knew well. He was glad Georgie had picked a house here because it was usually safe and quiet, with no problems troubling them. Their house was at the end of the street, on a corner.

It looked like your average house: two stories high, three bedrooms, clean garden, white door. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing special. Inside was another matter though... it looked like a home, not just a house.

There were still a few boxes left unpacked in the hallway and living room, but mostly everywhere else was done. It was cosy and had a feeling of warmth and love to it.

Gracie was upstairs getting changed whilst Trace looked at the three photos on the mantelpiece of the fire in the living room. The first one was took in the hospital when Gracie was just a few minutes old by the looks of it- Georgie was holding her tightly and despite looking absolutely exhausted, she had a genuine smile on her face. In the second photo, Mark and Georgie sat beside each other on the sofa, looking like the father and daughter had a close relationship. In the third, Mark, Georgie and Gracie were all looking at the camera and making funny faces; it made Trace smile.

He wandered upstairs and walked into Georgie's bedroom. A lot of her things were still in boxes, but she'd made her bed - cream sheets with black flowers on - and had put a photoframe on the beside table. Trace walked closer and picked the photo up, exhaling in a gust of shock as he looked at it. It was the one of them two as teenagers, at his family's barbeque; the one he had noticed was missing the night she left. Georgie had kept it this whole time. He smiled and gently put it back down.

He walked over to Gracie's room and knocked on the closed door. "Gracie?" He opened the door and walked in, looking around. "This is a nice room you have, although it's a little plain. You should have some bright colours in here, like pink, maybe."

Plain was an understatement. The walls were white, the laminate flooring was shiny clean, the bedsheets were white, her wardrobe was white... practically everything was white.

"I hate pink," Georgie replied. "I used to have a purple room. I loved it. But I had to get new things when I moved here."

Trace noticed that she sounded angry and looked more closely at her. She was sat on her bed in clean clothes, holding a photo of her and her mother dancing. She was crying. He walked over and sat on the bed next to her. "That's a nice photo."

"Go away!" She snapped.

"Gracie... What's wrong?" He asked gently.

"I want my mum and grandpa! I don't like you, I don't even know you! Mum told me not to trust strangers and you're a stranger to me. Go away, go away, go away!" She shouted, getting herself worked up.

"Gracie, you can trust me. I'm going to look after you, okay?"

"No!" She shouted and hit his arm; it didn't hurt Trace one little bit. "Leave me alone, go away!"

After a moment of hesitation, Trace stood up and silently backed out of the room, closing the door behind him. He sat down on the top step of the staircase and pulled out his phone. He didn't know what else to do apart from turn to this person, the only person he could think of that might know what he should do.

He ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation as the phone rang. On the sixth ring, he heard her voice. "Hello?"

"It's me," he answered. "Mum, I need your help."

"Trace, what is it?" She asked. Trace had phoned her last night and told her about Georgie and Gracie - no doubt she'd told the rest of the family after that - so he didn't have to explain all of that to her.

"It's Gracie," he sighed. "We're staying at Georgie's house so Gracie could have clean clothes and all that, but she won't talk to me. She was crying over a photo of her and Georgie, and when I tried to comfort her, she told me to leave her alone. That she didn't like me or trust me. I don't know what to do, mum."

"Trace, all young children are like that," she chuckled. "They get angry and upset easily."

"I know, but I don't know what to say to her or anything!"

"Give me Georgie's address," Karla said. "I'll come over as quickly as I can, okay?"

* * *

Karla quietly entered Gracie's room and shut the door behind her. Gracie was laid on her bed, curled up in the foetal position and crying. Karla jostled Gracie's body as she sat on the bed, causing Gracie to look at her, expecting Trace. She startled and sat up as she asked, "who are you?"

"My name's Karla. I'm Trace's mum," she smiled.

"Oh. Why are you here?"

"I wanted to meet you," she said. "Trace said that you were a little upset and wanted him to leave you alone, so he asked me to come and see if you're okay... You can trust him to look after you, you know. Don't tell him I told you this, but he's a big softie at heart. He wouldn't hurt a fly! And I'm pretty sure that he would buy anything you want if you asked, he was the same with your mum when they were younger. He gave her anything she wanted," she laughed.

"Trace knew mum when they were little?" She asked quietly.

"Oh yes," she nodded. "They were best friends, but then your mum and grandpa moved out of town and they lost touch."

"Oh." Gracie fell silent.

Karla took this opportunity to gently put her hand on Georgie's knee, using her power to try and get a feeling of what Gracie's life had been like as she grew up... The first thing she felt was love. Pure, undying love. Gracie was loved. She didn't go to school, Mark had been home schooling her. Georgie and Gracie lived with Mark in a house in the middle of nowhere and Gracie was never allowed out on her own. Despite this though, she was happy. Happy and loved.

Karla yet again smiled at Gracie, but this time it was at the fact that she was such a happy little girl. She took in Gracie's appearance and realised just how much she really did look like Trace and had no doubts that he was her dad.

"I want to see my mum," Gracie muttered.

"I know sweetie, but your mum's asleep. She wouldn't even know you were there, and... Trust me, you don't want to see her like that. She's not very well."

"Trace said she'd be okay."

"And I'm sure she will be," Karla nodded and looked around the room for a distraction. Spotting a desk covered in paper, pencils and pens, and felt tips, she asked, "you like to draw?"

"I love to draw," Gracie smirked, revealing the same dimples in her cheeks that Georgie had had when she was little. Karla's heart hurt a little at that sight- Georgie had been a daughter to Karla in her eyes, and she missed her. She'd had to stay strong all these years as she watched Trace fall apart at the seams, the only thing rescuing him from his own despair was the police academy and the love and support from his family.

"Trace likes to draw as well," Karla said. "Why don't you show me some of the things you've drawn?"

Half an hour later, Gracie was immersed in her artwork and Karla let her be, heading downstairs. She found Trace sat on the living room sofa, leaning forward with his head in his hands. At his mother entering the room, he sat up straight and asked, "how is she?"

"She misses her mum and still wants to see her, but she's okay for now," Karla answered and sat down next to him. "Next time, you don't have to phone. Just do what feels right, Trace."

"I don't know how to be a dad. I'm rubbish at it, I have no idea how to look after her. I'm going to make a complete mess of this," he moaned.

"You're not," she shook her head. "I have faith in you, Trace. You were so good with your brothers, you'll be a brilliant father. She's a wonderful girl."

"I know," he smiled fondly. "You really think I could be a good dad?"

"Yes," she answered. And she was telling the truth, she really was. Her son was a great man, he always had been. Ever since Georgie left, he'd always been a little lost and had never moved on - not that Karla expected him to considering Georgie was his soulfinder - but he'd always been polite, kind and warm. He was known around town simply as 'the nice Benedict', because everybody knew how much of a lovely gentleman he was. And she knew that there was no way he would be a bad father. "Are you going to tell her that you're her dad?"

"I don't know," Trace shrugged. "I want to, but I don't want to just spring it up on her with everything else that's going on. I'm not going to tell her yet, anyway."

"That makes sense... Trace, seriously, stop worrying about this. Everything's going to be okay, you just watch."


	6. Chapter 6

**22nd November 2012**

Shortly after, Trace left the house, leaving Karla there to watch Gracie. He headed straight to the police station, walking into his office and losing himself in the work.

By the time the Chief, a fifty-two year old man with greying hair called Frank Quincey, walked into the room, Trace had just about finished. On the board behind his desk, there was a photo of everybody involved in this case: Georgie, Gracie, Mark, the man on the CCTV camera. There were photos of the crash and Georgie's and Gracie's injuries. There was information of their injuries written on a sheet of paper, and red strings linking each thing to another if they were relevant.

"You got working on this rather quickly," Quincey noted as both he and Trace sat down across from each other at Trace's desk. "So, you're not going to complain about having a small case like you did last time?"

"No," Trace shook his head. "This is bigger now, anyway. You won't believe the day I had yesterday... The victim, Georgeanne Carter, is my ex-girlfriend from when I were younger. Turns out her daughter is my daughter, and now I'm taking care of her because Social Services couldn't get in touch with Mark, Georgeanne's father and the only family she has left. Gracie, my daughter, she told me that Mark has gone missing."

Quincey's eyebrows reached impossible high up his forehead and he chuckled. "Wow. Well, I guess my congratulations are in order; you're a dad, Benedict. I promise you it will be the best thing you do in your life," he said, fondly thinking of his own three children. "Am I going to have to put someone else in charge of this case, though? I don't want your emotional ties getting the best of you."

"No, I'll be okay," Trace reassured him. "Besides, I'm the only one here that can do this case. Georgeanne's like me- she has powers. When she left town nine years ago, it was because her father had an enemy; probably an enemy with powers, it always is when it comes to us savants. Georgie's in a coma so I can't ask her, but I think the man responsible for the crash has something to do with Mark and his disappearance. I think it's bigger than it looks, sir."

Quincey sighed exhaustedly because he knew all about savants, despite not being one himself, and he knew that when a case involved them, it always resulted in chaos and havoc and somebody always ended up getting hurt. "Right, you're still on the case then," he said. "Try not to let it get out of hand like the last time, I don't want to lose that many of my officers again. And get in touch with your brother and his FBI buddies, ask if they'll help you out with this. They're always more well equipped and trained for savant cases. Okay?" He stood up, ready to leave and check in on how the other cases were going.

"Will do, sir," Trace nodded. "Oh, before you go, I was wondering if I could take tomorrow off? It's just, I want to spend the day with my daughter. I'll have my phone with me at all times, and talk to my brother about the FBI being involved."

"Of course," Quincey replied without pause. Quincey was a great boss and a brilliant leader in the station- he was tough on them to make sure the job got done, but was kind and understanding, especially when it came to family considering he himself was a big family man. "Day after tomorrow, I want a brief on everything to do with the case, okay?"

"Sir," Trace nodded, waiting until Quincey shut the door behind him before letting out a long sigh.

He was tired. Not just in the literal sense, but in the emotional sense. Yesterday had been the best and worst day of his life. The best because Georgie finally came back to him, and because he found out about Gracie. The worst because he found out Georgie might die, and because he found out about Gracie which meant he had to learn how to be a dad and wasn't just looking after himself anymore. Add that on top of the case with no leads, and the fact he hadn't slept at all, of course he was absolutely knackered. Anybody else in his situation would be too.

He went to the kitchen in the police station and had another cup of coffee. He actually hated the taste and smell of coffee, but he had grown so used to needing it to function on days like these, that he had become addicted and couldn't go a day without at least one cup of the stuff.

Once back in his car, he contacted Karla via telepathy to make sure it was okay for him to stay out a little bit longer before going back to Georgie's, which Karla was fine with seeing as she had nothing else to do today and didn't mind babysitting Gracie.

Trace decided to go to the hospital; he desperately wanted to see Georgie again. He stopped off at the florist's on the way and contemplated buying a bunch of red roses, until he remembered Georgie hated them. Instead, he bought a beautiful bunch of white lilies - which used to be her favourites although she'd never received a bunch from anyone - which the florist wrapped up in a pink ribbon.

When he got to the hospital, he had a quick chat with Nurse Nora only to be told yet again that there had been no changes, before going into Georgie's room. She was still peacefully sleeping, the incessant beeping of the machines and the loud wheezing of the breathing ventilator being the only sounds in the room. There was a vase on the bedside table which he filled with water before putting the lilies in.

He sat in the chair next to Georgie's bed and took hold of her hand which felt frozen to his warm touch. "Hey," he said softly. "So, I don't know if you can hear me or not. Nurse Nora said that you might be able to, but probably not... I'm glad you're back, Georgie. Unbelievably happy, even with you being in a coma I can still see the good. I never stopped loving you, you know. It's always been you, I haven't been with anybody else, I couldn't bare it.

Baby, I'm sorry I didn't do anything to stop him from separating us. I tried looking for you, I did, but I couldn't find you. I promise, I won't let anybody take you away from me again."

It felt so great to be talking to her, even if he knew that she probably couldn't hear him and she obviously wasn't going to reply. But he needed this. He needed to get all of this out of his system and talking to Georgie had always been a comfort to him.

"Anyway," he continued talking to the unconscious woman. "I met Gracie. She's wonderful and so, so beautiful... I'm proud to be her father. She's perfect. We always said that in our dreams we had two children, a boy and a girl, so you need to wake up so we can get working on that," he joked. "I'm staying with Gracie in your house, I hope that's okay.

I don't know how to be a dad. I thought it'd be easier, but boy, was I wrong. Maybe when you wake up you'll be able to help me be a better dad, and we can be a proper little family like we should have been right from the start.

I'm angry at you for not telling me we had a baby girl, but I forgive you. I'll forgive you for anything, as long as you just wake up and come back to me, baby." Trace started crying and shaking as he sobbed, "please just come back to me, baby."

He spent the next twenty minutes feeling pathetic as he sobbed and spoke helpless pleas asking her to wake up. He thought about what he would do if she did die... he'd be alone. _No you wouldn't_, he reminded himself. _You'd have Gracie_.

He'd failed to protect Georgie from harm, but he wouldn't fail Gracie. He wouldn't let anybody hurt his daughter. Ever.

* * *

In a dark, cold, damp basement in a house somewhere in Leeds, England - where he had been living with his daughter and granddaughter for the past nine years - Mark Carter cried out in pain as another knife sliced its way over his skin, leaving a deep and bleeding, nasty cut.

The holder of the knife was a forty year old blonde woman with striking grey eyes. "I can do this all day, Mark," she smirked. "Just tell me what and where the weapon is."

"What weapon?"

"You know what weapon!" She shouted, carving another cut, this time on his bicep. "The weapon that supposedly, somehow, is meant to have the power to end the civil war between savants. Tell me where it is and I won't kill you, I'll let you go. You can get back to your _family_," she sneered the word.

"Why do you want the weapon?" Mark asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" She laughed. "I want to use the weapon to stop the war. To _win_ the war. You call us the bad guys but we're not, not really. We just want what's rightfully ours: the world. We are superior to ordinary humans and we just want to make that official, is that really so bad? And if the weapon is of no use to me, I will destroy it to make sure you 'good guys' can't use it against us. Now, where is it?" She held the knife to his throat, nicking his skin a little in a warning.

"What makes you think I even know what the weapon is, let alone where it is?"

"Because I've heard all of the rumours, Mark. Your brother created the weapon, and he tells you everything. He's gone into hiding, presumably taking the weapon with him, but I know you well and I am willing to bet anything that you know where both your brother and the weapon are. So spill, Mark. Come on, sweetheart."

Mark smirked. "It's been a while since you called me that, Laurel."

"Why yes, it has been a while, hasn't it? And that's your fault... you weren't enough for me, whereas Peter is," she smiled back. She had the smile of an angel, but the look of the devil in her eyes. "Where is the weapon, Mark?" She asked slowly, pronouncing each word separately to emphasize her point.

"You always were a little dumb, but I guess you must be extremely stupid if you think I'm going to tell you," he spat out.

"Huh. You always did underestimate me; it's one of the reasons I hated you. You never cease to disgust me, Mark. Do you really think you're the only plan I have? I had a feeling you wouldn't tell me. You always did have loyalty to your family. I guess we'll have to go to Plan B now... Wait here a moment, I'll send two of my men in to collect you and take you to my private jet."

"Why, where are we going?"

"Where else?" She smirked. "Wrickenridge, Colorado."

* * *

_Author's note: BIG thank you to those that are following and reviewing, it means so much to me. I love reading reviews and they inspire me to update quicker, so please keep them coming! :-)_

_I hope you liked this chapter. I think it's slightly shorter than my other ones, which I apologize for. _

_Thank you for reading!_

_Charlotte xo_


	7. Chapter 7

_Author's note: So, the main point of this chapter is just for Trace and Gracie to bond and start getting along. Things will start getting more exciting and action-y soon, I promise :-) Don't lose faith, haha!_

_I also wanted to include all of the brothers and the age gaps between each of them, which I managed to do in the flashback, woo!_

_Please leave reviews!_

_Charlotte xo_

* * *

**23rd November 2012**

Trace opened one of the back doors of his white Audi A4 car for Gracie, then put her seatbelt on for her. He walked around to sit in the driver's seat and put his own seatbelt on.

As he started driving, Gracie asked, "where are we going? Why couldn't I have just stayed at home?"

"Because you and I need to spend some more time together," he answered simply.

"But I don't want to spend time with you," she folded her arms and pouted. "I want to stay at home in my room, on my own."

"Well, that's not going to happen, princess," he replied, the term of endearment just slipping out of his mouth as if on instinct. "Besides, I think you're going to like what I have planned for you today."

Trace looked through the rearview mirror and saw a smile appear on her face involuntarily. "Why? What are we doing?" She asked, unable to contain her excitement.

"Well first off, we're going to get you a booster seat. It's sort of illegal for you not to have one while in the car. But then, we're going shopping."

"To buy what?"

"Well, food, seeing as your mum hasn't had time to get any for your house. Then, we're going to buy some paint because I think it's time that we decorated your bedroom. You can get some other stuff for your room too, whatever you want. How does that sound?"

"Can I have my room purple again?" She grinned.

"If that's what you want," he nodded.

"Purple with green stripes!" She exclaimed. "And a poster of One Direction. Oh, I just love them! Do you have enough money? Are police men rich?"

Trace laughed at her enthusiasm and said, "no, they're not exactly rich. But I do work for other people as well," he added, referring to the Savant Net. "So I have more than enough money to buy the things for you."

"Karla said that you will give me anything I ask for, because that's what you did with my mum when you were little," she said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, your mum knew exactly the right things to do to get her own way," he chuckled. "And I won't give you everything you ask for... Just most things." Gracie laughed at his joke, her laugh a sweet melodic sound just like her mother's had been. "Can you do me a favour?" Trace then asked her. "Can you please try and not be moody while we're shopping? You're much more fun when you're not moody."

"I'm always fun! But okay, I won't be moody... Trace?"

"Yes?"

"I want to see my mum."

"I thought we talked about this Gracie," he sighed.

"I know. Mum's poorly and in hospital and I shouldn't see her like that. But even though I'm only 9, I am brave. I think I'll stop worrying about her so much if I can see her and talk to her," she admitted quietly, sounding mature for her age. "I was in hospital when I was 6 because I had really bad tonsillintus and had my tonsils took out and mum stayed with me all the time."

Trace was pretty sure Gracie meant tonsillitis, but didn't pick her up on it. He thought for a moment as he drove... Was it really fair to stop a little girl from seeing her mum? Maybe she could handle it, maybe it would help her. "Okay," Trace finally said. "I'll take you to see her tomorrow, okay? But if it gets too much, you tell me, and I'll take you out of there. Deal?"

"Deal," she nodded. "Trace, can I go to school?"

"You want to go to school?"

"I've never been to school before. Mum said I might be able to go here, and I asked Karla and she told me to ask you. I really want to go to school."

"Okay," he nodded and smiled. "I'll try and enrol you into the local school."

"Thank you," she smiled. "Grandpa will be so happy when I tell him! I can't tell him until you find him, but when you do, I'll tell him. He always wanted me to go but he said that for now he had to teach me. When are you going to find him?"

"I'm working on it," he promised her. "What sort of stuff did he teach you, then?" He asked, desperate to get to know his daughter.

"Umm... Reading and writing! I like reading, but not writing. He taught me how to play some songs on his piano and he taught me maths and other lessons. And how to control my powers... Oh no! I'm not meant to tell people I have powers!" She sounded scared that she would get into trouble.

"No, that's okay," he was quick to reassure her. "You're a savant, yes? Well, I am too. I have powers as well. I can see the past, things that have happened, by touching something."

"Cool! Mum says I control all the elements, but I don't know what elements are, I just know I can do special things that always make mummy giggle. I wish I had mum's power though: she can control gravity. One day, she took all the gravity away from around me and it was like I was flying! It was so fun."

Trace smiled as the memory of Georgie finding out what her power was came back into his mind...

_Trace and Georgie were 13 years old, and were enjoying a rare day of sunshine in the Benedict's back garden. There were a number of activities going on: football, swing ball, a water fight and sunbathing (well, that was only Karla)._

_Trace and Georgie were the ones playing swing ball, hitting the ball with as much force as they could to try and get the other person to miss the ball, which would result in a score for them. 4 year old Zed was sat watching them curiously, laughing in delight at how serious they were taking the game._

_"Bro, she's beating you!" 8 year old Will shouted, taking a break from the water fight, as Georgie scored again, making it 5-2 to her._

_"Shut up, Will!" Trace replied._

_In his frustration, he hit the ball as hard as he could and watched it swing round the pole quickly, taking Georgie by surprise and hitting her straight in the face. She cried out in pain and dropped her bat, falling to her knees and putting her hands to her left cheek where she had been hit._

_Trace stood frozen, shocked that he had hurt Georgie; he had never hurt her in the entire time he had known her. Zed's giggling had now come to a halt, the only other brother that had noticed Georgie getting hurt as Will had gone back to the water fight with 7 year old Xav and 10 year old Victor._

_Uriel, who was now 11 years old but often acted older, was playing football with Saul whilst a 5 year old Yves tried to join in too. He must have heard Georgie crying because he looked over and saw her crouched on the floor, sobbing in pain._

_"Georgie?" Uriel ran over to her and crouched down next to her. "Dad, Georgie's hurt!"_

_Saul quickly ran over and asked, "Georgie, what happened?"_

_"Trace hit me with the ball," she mumbled. "My cheek really hurts." She pulled her hand away and Trace saw that it was bright red, going a darker red nearer her jaw._

_"Oh, sweetheart," Saul rubbed her back in comfort. "Come on, let's get you inside and put some ice on it, okay? Do you want me to phone your dad?"_

_"No," she shook her head. "You're here, I don't need him."_

_Saul smiled fondly at the girl who was like a daughter to him, before looking up at Trace. "Son, do you have anything to say to Georgie?"_

_By now, Trace was crying also. He didn't like to see Georgie hurt, especially when he was the one who had hurt her. "It was an accident," he blurted out. "I'm sorry, Georgie! Does it hurt?"_

_Georgie stood up, frowning at Trace. "Does it hurt?! Of course it hurts!" She shouted. She looked at him, her eyes narrowing in her anger- the look she was giving him was one that could have killed him if that was possible. And then, suddenly, her grey eyes turned white; literally, the whole of her eyes were white._

_And then, before he could absorb what was happening, Trace's body was lifting into the air. "Ahh!" He screamed, his arms and legs flailing around in the air, his body quaking with fear and even more tears falling from his eyes. "Help!" He shouted. "Georgie, whatever you're doing, stop! Please, stop!"_

_So she did._

_And Trace fell from the air in a fast rush of wind. Without thinking he threw his arms out in front of him to brace his fall... Then heard - and certainly felt - the snap of a bone in his left wrist as he landed. He screamed out in pain, rolling over on the floor and clutching at his hurt wrist._

_"Trace!" Georgie shouted. She was the first one to reach him, despite his family moving towards him quickly as well. She fell to the floor next to his and hugged him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't know what I was doing! I'm sorry!"_

_"It's okay," he said through gritted teeth. "I forgive you. Sorry about hitting you with the ball."_

_"It's okay," she repeated his words with a smile._

_The next day, the pair were a funny sight as they walked into school: Trace's wrist was broken, and Georgie had a massive purple bruise on her cheek and jaw._

_But they were still able to see the funny side of it and forgive each other. They always were able to forgive each other for anything._

Back in the present, Trace rethought what Gracie had actually said and his eyes widened. "You control the elements? That's a powerful gift to have."

"Yeah, but it's not as good as being able to control gravity and fly!"

"I agree with you there," he laughed. "Your mum made me fly quite a few times... Mostly when she was angry at me and wanted me out of the way, but still. So Gracie, what's your favourite place to eat at?"

"McDonalds," she replied instantly and in a serious tone. "But mum only takes me there like once a month if I behave because she says it isn't healthy."

"Your mum's right," he nodded in agreement. "But it's okay for a treat every now and then. How about we go there after we've done some shopping?"

"Yes, please! Thank you, Trace. I'm starting to like you now. Can we be friends?"

"Of course," he grinned happily.

* * *

That evening, Trace and Gracie were entertaining themselves by painting Gracie's bedroom. She had wanted full on purple and green stripes, but Trace had persuaded her to have purple walls with a green border running across the top of the walls. She had chosen various other things for her room too, but they'd decided not to sort any of that until they had finished painting.

They had the radio on whilst they were working and at that moment were dancing and singing along to a One Direction song, which Gracie had screamed in excitement at as soon as it started playing.

"Trace you have paint on your shirt!" Gracie noticed, pointing her finger at Trace's t-shirt where there was a blob of purple paint.

"Well..." He pretended to sigh before moving quickly and painting a huge line down the back of her top. "So do you."

She shrieked and ran her brush across his face before giggling and running across the room. "You're going to pay for that!" He shouted menacingly. He started walking towards her slowly, like a predator stalking its prey, holding his brush in front of him as a weapon. "I'm gonna get you, Gracie."

Suddenly, his phone started ringing and he sighed in disappointment at the bonding moment being ruined and said, "let me just answer this call, and then you are going to be covered in paint." Gracie laughed and moved back to the other side of the room to continue painting the wall. Trace fished his phone out of his pocket and answered it. "Yeah, hello?"

"Trace it's Victor," came the husky reply. "Are you busy?"

"Yep," he replied. "I'm painting Gracie's bedroom with her, then I'm going to paint her." Again, Gracie laughed at that.

"What?"

"Never mind," he shook his head. "What's up?"

"I've found out who the guy Georgie was talking to is. I have his file with me here," Victor replied in a tired voice.

"Oh... Well, are you going to the barbeque tomorrow at mum and dad's house? I'm thinking of taking Gracie along to meet all of you. You could show me the file then," he suggested.

"Okay, we'll do that," Victor agreed. "See you tomorrow."

"Right, bye," Trace said to his brother before hanging up and sliding his iPhone back in his jeans pocket. He turned to face Gracie again and grinned. "You ready for the war?"

"Bring it on!" She shouted, paintbrush ready in her hand.


	8. Chapter 8

**24th November 2012**

Trace closed the door as he watched Gracie slowly approach the hospital bed in silence. She reached out and touched her mother's cheek so gently it was as if she thought Georgie would break, before dropping her hand and looking up at Trace. He had expected her to break down in tears like any nine year old would at seeing her mum like that, but it turned out Gracie really was stronger than she looked, because she wasn't crying at all.

She had a serious, straight expression as she said, "tell me the truth. Is she going to be okay?"

Trace sighed and shook his head as he said, "the doctors don't know just yet. She might be okay... Or she might not be okay."

"Will she die? What happens if she dies?" Her voice broke a little, but still, she didn't cry.

Trace walked over and knelt in front of Gracie, taking both of her hands in his. "It's a possibility that she might die, I'm so sorry. But you and I both know that your mum is a fighter, she's strong, she's not going to leave so easily. If she dies... Well, you can still stay with me. And your mum... Well, she'll go to heaven. She'll become a proper angel and she'll always be looking down on you, and will always protect you. You won't be able to see her, but she'll be there. She'll never leave your side."

"Really?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Never. Why don't you talk to her? She might be able to hear you, you never know."

"Okay," Gracie smiled and let go of Trace before putting her hand back on Georgie's cheek. "Hey, mum," she started. "I miss you loads, I can't wait for you to wake up, I have so much to tell you. Trace is living with me now and he's really nice, he said that he's a friend of yours. And he's a policeman which means he can find grandpa..." She continued to talk to her, telling her about her new bedroom and the other things she had done recently, and Trace left her to it, letting them have their privacy.

He walked out of the room and straight towards the reception desk, where Nurse Nora was talking to the receptionist. She smiled at Trace and moved away from the desk, standing just outside Georgie's room with him. "Is something the matter?" She asked him.

"No, I just wanted to know if there were any changes. And if you're going to do anything different to try and get her better."

"There have been changes actually," she nodded with a smile. "We ran some tests this morning and discovered that the swelling on Georgeanne's brain has reduced significantly. Enough so that we think it's safe to ease her out of the coma and off the life support machine, and see how she does after that. With the doctor's approval, we plan to do that in a few days or so."

"That's great," Trace breathed a long sigh of relief, the pain in his heart easing slightly. "Would it be possible for you to phone me when that happens so I can be here?"

"Absolutely," said Nurse Nora. "I already have your details, so I'll do that. Anyway, I really have to go and check on another patient, I'm sorry. Press the red button near Georgeanne's bed if you need me or if anything happens, okay?"

"Okay, thank you."

As Nora wandered off down the corridor, Trace stepped back into the hospital room and smiled at the sight of Gracie stroking her mother's hair and gently singing a song to her. She was unaware of Trace's presence so he leaned against the wall and simply listened to the sweet singing voice of his daughter...

_Just close your eyes_

_The sun is going down_

_You'll be alright_

_No one can hurt you now_

_Come morning light_

_You and I'll be safe and sound_

After the last word was sang, Gracie looked up and finally noticed Trace stood there. "I've got some good news," he broke the silence and moved towards her. "The nurse said that your mum's getting better and they're going to try and wake her up in a few days."

"Really?" She gasped. "That's so great! She's going to be okay! Does that mean she can home and you won't have to live with us anymore?"

Trace gulped down the lump that formed in his throat at the thought of not living with his baby girl anymore. No, he hadn't known Gracie long but already he couldn't imagine life without her. "Yeah I guess it does mean that," he mumbled.

"That's a shame. I was starting to like you. And I like living with you, you're fun and you're a good cook. Mum never cooks, grandpa always does it, and if he doesn't, then we order pizza. The last time mum tried to cook a fire started in the kitchen," she giggled.

Trace chuckled and said, "that doesn't surprise me. I remember once my mum, Karla, tried to teach Georgie how to cook and Georgie was determined to make that night's meal all on her own. Me and my family all sat down to eat it with her, and it was disgusting. My brothers and parents didn't eat it, but I did because I knew it would make your mum happy... Don't tell her, but I was sick later that night."

They both laughed at that little story, sharing the amusement of Georgie's terrible cooking. As their laughter died down, Trace realised how much he enjoyed Gracie's company and decided it was time to tell her the truth. He knelt in front of her like he had done numerous times before now and looked into her eyes - which were so much like her mother's they never failed to startle Trace - as he gently said, "Gracie, there's something I need to tell you, princess."

"What?" She frowned in confusion.

"Has your mum ever told you anything about who your dad is?" He asked. He briefly wondered whether he had any right to tell her this, whether he should wait until Georgie woke up and gave him her approval, but he decided that this is what she would want and Gracie had a right to know who her father was.

"Yes," she nodded. "She used to talk about my dad to me every night. She said that he was her soulfinder, her friend for life, and that they loved each other a lot. She'd tell me about some of the good times they had together and how he could always make her smile and tried to stop her from being naughty at school. Mum still loves my dad, I can tell. She never told me his name though, but promised that I could meet him one day. They got separated before I was born, you see, but she said that no matter what, my dad would love me as soon as he found out about me and we'd be as perfect a family as we could be." She smiled, clearly remembering her mother's words. "Why are you asking, Trace?"

"Your mum was right," he smiled sweetly. "About your dad loving you as soon as he knew you were his daughter, I mean. Gracie, there's no other way to say this other than just coming out with it, so here goes... I'm your dad."

"Are you kidding?"

"No," he smirked. "I'm not kidding. I'm your dad, Gracie. I know I wasn't there for you growing up but your mum told you the truth: we were separated before I even knew you were going to be born. But I'm going to be there for you from now on, okay? I'm not going anywhere. Even when your mum wakes up and goes home, I'm still going to be around and I'm still going to be there whenever you need me. I promise. Okay?"

"Okay," she said shyly, a coy smile on her face. "I'm glad you're my dad, Trace. You make me laugh and you make me feel safe and unhappy, and that's what mum said my dad would be like. Does this mean I have to call you dad now?"

"Only if you want to," he shrugged. "I won't make you if you don't want to."

"No, I want to!" She exclaimed. "I've always wanted a dad, and now I have one."

"Good," Trace grinned, unashamedly happy with how she had accepted the news and glad that the cat was out of the bag. "Are you finished talking to your mum now? We have somewhere else to go."

"Where?" She questioned.

"We're going to my parents' house for a barbeque; it'll be fun."

"Wait! That means Karla is my grandma, doesn't it? I always wanted a cool grandma like her."

"I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear that," he chuckled. "And you have another grandpa now as well. And you can meet my six brother, your uncles."

"Do I have any aunties?" She asked.

"Unfortunately not," he shook his head. "None of my brothers have found their soulfinders yet."

"That's sad," she pouted.

"I know," he nodded in agreement. "Anyway, are you ready to go then?"

Gracie smiled at Trace and said, "okay, dad."

* * *

Trace stood on the deck in the back garden, arms folded across his chest and a smile on his face as he marveled at how lucky he was to have such a close family that accepted Gracie as their own so quickly and effortlessly. He looked at the scene in front of him: Karla and Saul were stood near the barbeque watching over the food whilst all of his brothers, excluding Victor who had just gone out to his car to get the file he needed to show Trace, were engaged in a game of 'scarecrow tig' with Gracie, letting out their inner child, giggling along with her and getting into the teamwork spirit of the game.

The only thing missing from this afternoon was Georgie. He could just imagine her playing the game with the others and refusing to admit that she had been tagged and making her own rules up. He imagined her looking over at him with her beautiful eyes and sticking her tongue out at him with some telepathic remark about how soppy he was being by watching the family with a smile on his face like that.

The thought of her only made his smile grow even more.

The illusion was crushed when Victor clamped a hand on his shoulder and said, "got the file, bro."

They sat down at the table and chairs set that was on the patio deck and Trace asked, "is it bad? Does it give any clues as to why he'd try and kill Georgie and Gracie or where he is?"

"Not straight out no," Victor shook his head. "I think this is going to become one of those cases where we have to think things through, come up with the most likely possibility of what the hell is going on."

"Great," Trace replied sarcastically, sighing. "So, who is the man then?"

Victor opened the file and read from the page as he talked. "His name is Lawrence Davis; he's forty-one years old and was born and raised in London. Good grades at school, no signs of a criminal history apart from one bout of shoplifting when he was thirteen. He's from a wealthy family, parents are both lawyers, and has a twin sister called Laurel."

"So what does he have to do with Georgie, then?"

Victor exhaled a gust of breath and looked up at Trace, eyebrows furrowed together. "He's her uncle, Trace. His sister Laurel was Georgie's mum, but apparently died in a house fire when Georgie was one. Mark left London when she died, taking Georgie with him. Lawrence got on with his life and owns his own mechanics garage, as well as doing some work for the Net every now and then."

"The Net?" Trace repeated. "But that's a good thing! That means you should have records on where he lives, his phone number, his soulfinder and his family... We can find him!"

"It's not that easy, Trace," Victor shook his head. "Lawrence knows we have all those records. I've tried phoning him but all his numbers have been cut off, I sent men to his house but it's empty, his parents have no idea where he is and he hasn't found his soulfinder yet. Look, stop stressing out about this."

"Stop stressing out?" Trace snapped in disbelief. "Vick, he tried to kill my soulfinder and my daughter! I'm not just going to leave it alone, am I? You don't understand-"

"No, I don't," his brother interrupted him. "Because unlike you, I wasn't lucky enough to find my soulfinder at a young age and know who she is practically my whole life, and know what it's like to know who she is."

Trace winced. "Shit, I'm sorry, Victor."

"It's fine," he said. "You've been through a lot and I can at least try and understand that you want answers. I don't know why Lawrence tried to kill his own niece and her child, but we'll figure it out, bro. Ask mum to watch Gracie tomorrow - I'm sure she won't mind, she adores her already - and you and I will go to your office and work on the case all day. But for now, we shouldn't think about it. This is supposed to be a family afternoon, lets enjoy it."

Trace looked over at his younger brother and wondered when had Victor become the most mature brother that always knew the right things to say? He wasn't sure, but he was glad for it; it was exactly what he needed right now. Trace nodded as he said, "you're right. Thanks, Victor."

"Whatever," Victor shrugged, never one to easily accept praise. "Come on, lets go beat their asses at scarecrow tig."


	9. Chapter 9

**27th November 2012**

The room they'd locked him up in was quite a place they had created considering they were criminals without the same resources as the authorities had. The old brick walls were hidden by the large sheets of a sort of reinforced steel stapled to them- the same reinforced steel used in savant prisons that somehow stopped any kind of powers from being used in the room. He had a thin, single mattress for a bed with one cushion and a dirty thin sheet as a duvet. The one lightbulb in the room was dim, and the only window was too high up for him to look out of, and didn't let very much light because of how small it was.

Mark had no option but to lay on the mattress and think about his life. There was nothing else for him to do. Regardless of what other people thought, Mark didn't dislike his life; he didn't think it was sad and lonely having to keep a low profile all the time and constantly being aware and ready to run at a moment's notice. Of course he wished he could live a safe life, one where he didn't have to look over his shoulder all the time, but this was the way his life turned out and he wasn't going to feel sorry for himself, despite what other people might have done in his situation.

The only reason he had lived this kind of life was to stop Laurel from taking Georgie away from him. And besides, Georgie and Gracie both made everything worthwhile: they were his family and they all loved each other, they made his life better. Georgie had been furious with him when he'd made her leave Trace, and she'd even hated him for a while, especially when she realised that she was pregnant and Mark still wouldn't let her return to Wrickenridge. But as she matured - which had had to happen quickly so that she could be a good mother - she'd begun to understand why they had to stay hidden and she didn't run away because she wanted to keep her daughter safe. She'd slowly forgiven Mark and accepted his help at raising her daughter.

Mark wondered where Georgie and Gracie were now. They were his biggest concern; he was more worried about them than the injuries Laurel was causing to his own health. Laurel hadn't found them as far as he knew - no doubt she would brag about it if she had - which meant that Georgie had remembered him numerously saying that if he ever didn't return when he went out, she needed to take Gracie and run away as fast and far as she could. Where had she gone? He hoped they were together and safe, keeping a low profile.

The last thing they needed was for Laurel to find them. God knows what she would do to them if she did. The woman was pure evil. Hell, she'd faked her own death just to escape the consequences of her actions before Mark could report what she did to the police. When he'd told her he was leaving her and taking their daughter with them, she'd laughed in his face and told him she would find them and hurt Georgie. Mark didn't know how Laurel could even think about hurting her own daughter, but he wholeheartedly believed that she would, hence why he had gone to America.

Of course he'd been thrilled for his daughter to find her soulfinder there, but he couldn't be as happy as he wanted to be because he knew that one day they might have to leave if Laurel found out they were there. And that day had come when he saw Peter, Laurel's soulfinder whom she apparently found a year after Mark left her, stalking around his street, acting so obviously suspicious. To other people, Mark's savant power wasn't very special, but to him it was just what he needed: he could know a person's name and the people they were acquainted with just by looking at them. He'd never seen Peter before in his life, but after one look, he knew exactly who he was and knew he had to leave with Georgie as quickly as he could.

Mark had never been a religious man but at that moment he found himself chanting prayers to God that his daughter and granddaughter were safe, maybe even with somebody that would help protect them and let no harm come to them.

He sat up, his thoughts interrupted, when the door to his 'cell' opened and Laurel walked in with a malicious smile on her face. He sighed and braced himself for whatever torture she had for him this time.

* * *

Trace was sat on the chair next to Georgie's bed, holding her left hand with both of his. He'd been sat here for the past two hours, knowing that he should be picking his daughter up from his parents' house, but not being able to bring himself to leave his soulfinder's side.

The doctor had taken her out of the coma and off the life support machine, which had made Trace more anxious than he could ever remember being. There was the possibility that Georgie wouldn't be able to breathe on her own without the machine, but thankfully all had gone well. They'd ran some tests afterwards and informed Trace that everything looked good, but they wouldn't know for sure that things were perfect until she woke up, which they predicted would be a few hours after they'd took her out of the coma.

Trace closed his eyes and let out an exhausted sigh before contacting Karla via telepathy. _"Mum, is everything okay over there? How's Gracie? Has she had anything to eat? She likes everything apart from pineapple and nuts, she's allergic to them. Oh and don't forget, if she has some of that ice cream, she can't have too much because it gives her headaches-"_

_"Trace,"_ she interrupted him, a hint of a smile in her voice. _"I know, you told me five times before you left. Don't turn into one of those constantly nervous fathers, I couldn't handle that. Gracie is fine, sweetheart. She had some pizza earlier, and somehow managed to get Will to let her turn the TV over - God knows how, nobody's managed to do that for years - and is watching the Disney Channel. She's fine, okay? Don't worry. How is Georgie doing?" _It was obvious in her tone that she was worried about Georgie; they all were, they just didn't make it overly obvious so as to not upset Trace even more.

_"She's doing okay, she's improved a lot. They said she should be waking up soon so I don't want to leave her, I don't want her to wake up alone."_

_"That's okay, Gracie can stay here as long as she wants, she's no trouble. She's started to call me Grandma now, do you have any idea how long I've waited to have a grandchild dote on me the way she does? She told me I'm one of her favourite people," _she laughed. _"She's a lovely girl. Georgie did a great job at bringing her up."_

_"I know she did. Do you think Gracie would mind me staying here longer?"_

_"Absolutely not. She's having fun here, Trace. Yves' happy as well: Gracie mentioned that she was going to ask you to buy her some more art stuff because she was running out, so Yves gave her £40! You know how long he's waited to find someone that will accept his money seeing as we won't."_

Trace laughed, unsurprised that Yves had taken advantage of the fact Gracie needed money and he had much more than he was comfortable with. _"I'd tell her to give him the money back and that I'd pay, but I doubt he'd let her. So she's really okay?"_

_"Yes, Trace. I'm off to do the washing up; let me know when you're on your way back so I can make sure Gracie's ready to leave when you get here."_

_"Okay," _Trace replied before feeling the telepathic link between them cut off.

He spent the next three or four minutes with his eyes closed, simply relaxing and blocking out the world. So much was going on in his life right now and he felt like he just needed those minutes to take a deep breath and clear his system of all that stress. When he opened his eyes, he looked down at Georgie and gasped.

She was awake, those beautiful grey eyes looking up at Trace with tears filling them, a gentle smile on her face. God, he'd missed that smile. "Trace," she whispered. "Is it really you?" He opened his mouth to reply, but in his shock at actually seeing her awake, no words would come out, so he simply nodded as tears filled his own eyes. "Oh my god. Trace..."

"Georgie," he finally said. "I've missed you so much... I'm never letting you go again."

She smiled weakly and said, "good, because I don't plan on going anywhere. How long have I been asleep?"

Trace quickly counted the days in his head before answering. "Nearly a week," he said. "You were in a coma, but the doctors said you should be okay now. You hurt your head in the accident... I thought I was going to lose you all over again."

"Where's Gracie?" Her eyes widened as she woke up more and remembered her daughter had also been in the accident. She started to panic, trying to sit up and pull the covers back. "Oh my god, where's Gracie? I have to make sure she's okay and that she's safe. I lost my dad, I can't lose her too."

"Georgie, baby, calm down," Trace said as he tried to get her to relax in the bed again and stop trying to leave. "Gracie's okay, she's okay."

Georgie paused. "Really? You promise?"

"I promise," he nodded and helped get her settled back in the bed. "I've been looking after her at your house, I hope that's okay."

Her eyes shot up to Trace's face and she asked, "you've met her?"

He nodded again. "Yes, I've met my daughter. Social Services told me my name was on the birth certificate as her father, and I worked out the dates. I told Gracie that I'm her dad, I thought she should know."

"Yeah, no, it's fine. I'm sorry you didn't know about her before, it was just too dangerous for us to come back or contact you. I felt so bad and I really wanted to tell you, but my dad stopped me."

"Yeah well when I find your dad, I have a few things I need to say to him," Trace replied angrily.

"Don't blame him, he was just trying to keep me safe," she said softly. "Are you okay with being a dad?"

He grinned as he said, "I wasn't at first. I had no idea what to do, and Gracie seemed to hate me. At one point, she shouted at me and totally freaked me out so I had to call my mum to come and help," he laughed. "But I'm getting better; Gracie and I have started to bond now. And she's met the family, they all love her, of course."

"That's great," Georgie smiled, revealing that after all these years, she still had those dimples in her cheeks. "Will you bring her here tomorrow? I need to see her."

"Of course," he nodded and gently ran his fingers down her cheek. "But I'll come by without her first because we need to talk, don't we? We have a hell of a lot to talk about."

"Yeah, we do," she agreed. "I'm really tired right now though, Trace."

"That's understandable, you've been working hard at healing yourself," he smiled. "I'll stay right here so that I'm here when you wake up."

"No, go to Gracie," she argued. "She should have at least one of us with her. Please, Trace. You can just come back tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll do that then. I'll tell the nurse you woke up, okay? She can come and make sure that you're okay."

"Alright," she said, yawning as her eyes began to slip closed again already. "And Trace... I love you."

"I love you too," he said, his heart pounding loudly in his chest at hearing her say that to him again. "I never stopped loving you, darling." He bent down and lightly kissed her forehead just as she fell asleep again.

* * *

_Author's note:_

_Yay, she's awake! Now the exciting stuff can start ;D_

_So who thought Mark was going to be evil? Well, he's not, mwahaha. And now he's being tortured, poor Mark._

_Ok, well I go back to college on Tuesday so I don't know when I'm going to next update. My college hours are all day Monday, all day Tuesday and half day Wednesday. Now I know that doesn't sound too much but on top of that we get given tons of coursework to do, plus I'm writing another story on here as well (a Mortal Instruments one), so I think I'll only have the time to update this story about once a week. So yeah._

_Please continue to leave your amazing reviews, they mean so much to me and inspire me to try and update quicker. _

_Thankyou for your continued support._

_Charlotte xo_


	10. Chapter 10

**28th November 2012**

Georgie sighed and rolled her eyes. Trace had arrived alone ten minutes ago, wearing dark jeans and a blue sweater, looking positively more handsome than what should be legal, and had started their conversation by telling her of his dream: a flashback of the night Georgie left. Trace was now ranting about how much he hated Mark for his actions, using a few choice swearwords, and how he didn't think he could ever forgive him, much to Georgie's dislike.

"Stop," she whispered, pain in her voice, but he didn't hear her. She spoke louder. "Stop, Trace!"

His words cut off mid-sentence and he sighed. "I'm sorry, we don't need to talk about your dad."

"Apparently we do," she snapped. "I don't want you talking about my dad like that."

Shocked, Trace reminded her, "he separated us, Georgie!"

"And he hates that he did that," she argued. "He's never stopped apologizing for it. He did what he had to do to keep Gracie and I safe. I don't like what he did but I forgive him for it. He missed you, you know. He might not have ever shown it to you, but he loved you; you were like a son to him just as much as I'm like a daughter to Karla. Dad was always there for me and Gracie, please don't talk badly about him."

Trace felt guilty because he knew he had upset Georgie and he didn't want to do that. He couldn't believe her when she said that Mark had loved him like a son; he'd always given the impression that he wanted nothing more than for Trace to disappear. He fell silent for a long moment before nodding his head. "Okay," he said gently. "I haven't forgiven him but I'll stop talking about him... I never even asked, how are you?" He chastised himself for not even thinking of asking how she were.

"Better," she smiled. "I'm still in pain, but not as much."

"That's good..." His voice trailed off as he thought of what else he needed to ask her. He knew he had to get it over with, sooner rather than later. It was annoyingly nagging at him; he had to know the answer so he could find the man and make sure he couldn't hurt anyone ever again. So when he said, "I saw a CCTV camera tape of the car accident you were involved in. The man you argued with, the one driving the other car... Do you know who he was?" He felt bad to bring the subject up but he didn't regret it, despite knowing it might stress her out which surely she didn't need right now.

But thankfully, it didn't. Georgie was exhausted, too exhausted to get worked up and stressed out. She simply breathed out a sigh and shook her head. "I don't know. He asked me where my dad was and I said I didn't know what he was talking about. He seemed crazy, delusional. I don't know who he was, I've never seen him before that day."

"He's your uncle, Georgie," Trace admitted quietly. "Victor works for the FBI and he did some research. The man's name is Lawrence Davis and he was your mother's twin brother. I thought you might have known him, but clearly not."

"He's my uncle?" She gasped, her eyes wide in shock. "But why would he hurt me? And what does he want with my dad?"

"We haven't figured that out yet. We don't even know where he is."

"We?" She questioned.

"Yeah, Vick's helping me with the case. I'm a policeman," he said, smiling shyly as if hoping desperately for Georgie's approval.

She grinned. "A policeman, huh?"

"Yeah, the deputy," he nodded with a short chuckle. "I remembered what you said all those years ago and decided not to be a coward and to follow my dreams."

"Good," she smiled up at him, her eyes twinkling with proud fondness for her soulfinder. "Does that mean you have the resources to find my dad?"

"I'm already on it, Gracie asked me," he laughed. "I'm not having much luck though, any idea where he is?"

"No," her upper lip trembled in sadness. "He went out and never came back. He always told me that if that ever happened, I needed to leave, go somewhere safe. Coming back to you was the first thing I thought of."

"Well, I'm glad of that," he smiled. "It's just... I can't even begin to describe how it feels to have you here again."

Georgie smiled and was about to reply but was interrupted by the hospital room door swinging open to reveal a grinning nine year old girl.

"Mum!" Gracie shouted, running to the bed, her curls bouncing on her head.

Trace watched with a smile as mother and daughter were reunited, both crying tears of happiness as they hugged tightly. It was such a sweet sight, one that he felt he was intruding on so he took a few steps backwards to give them their space. They both looked so content, finally together again, and in the time that he'd known Gracie he had never seen her smile that big. It was a beautiful sight. He wished that he could see his girls together every day and made a silent promise to himself to never go a day without seeing either of them ever again.

He felt somebody step up behind him and place a hand lightly against his back. A second later, he heard his mother's voice. "Georgie's grown up to be so beautiful," she said, a hint of crying in her voice, "I just can't believe it. You're so lucky, Trace."

"I know I am," he whispered, not being able to bring himself to talk any louder.

"Don't worry, darling. We'll do everything we can to stop her from being taken away from you again. You should go and join them," she nodded towards the two whom were still hugging each other and whispering things to each other with giggles.

"I can't," he shook his head. "It's a private moment... I should leave them be."

"You're a family," she said softly. "They need you, and I know you need them. They won't mind, I can assure you; go."

Trace may have been twenty-five years old, but he often still did what Karla told him to because he trusted her judgement in things; it was her motherly instinct, not just her savant powers, that made her know exactly the right things to say and do. So, believing that her words were right, Trace slowly moved towards the hospital bed, his palms sweating and his heart pounding in his chest.

He had never been so nervous in his life. He feared rejection from two of the most important people in his life.

But his heart screamed with joy when he reached the bed and Georgie's grey eyes looked up at him. She smiled warmly, dimples showing prominently, and held an arm out towards him. He sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped one arm around each of his girls, joining in their hug.

"I love you both so much," he mumbled, his voice full of emotion.

"We love you too daddy," Gracie replied with a grin.

Stood in the doorway, Karla looked at the sight of the three of them, and smiled with tears in her eyes. Georgie seemed so different to the little girl she had once classed as a daughter, but a good different. She was back now, for good, and Karla couldn't be happier. Trace had lost himself all those years ago when Georgie left; he'd become empty, desolate and depressed. She had made him see a therapist for a few years, but even that didn't seem to help. The only thing that helped was his job: he immersed himself in the work, barely giving himself much time to even think about his soulfinder. Karla had barely seen her son but she could just feel in her bones that that was going to change now. Because this little family had each other now and she just knew deep in her heart, that they would always have each other.

Yes, she could it see now. They were going to have their very own happily ever after... Just after a little drama that she could not yet predict, but definitely felt coming.

* * *

**31st November 2012**

Georgie stood there, looking at Gracie's bedroom around her. The last time she had seen it, everything had been white seeing as they had had to get brand new things and those were the cheapest there. Mark had saved more than enough money for the two as a precaution, but Georgie was trying to go easy on it considering she wanted it to last. Of course she would have decorated the bedroom eventually, she just hadn't been able to afford the supplies at the time. Besides, they had only been in town a few days before the accident occurred.

The walls were painted a dark lilac with a forest green border running across the top. A large fluffy green rug covered the laminate flooring; the previously white furniture was painted a dark brown woodsy colour, matching the bed's headboard; the bedsheets had One Direction on them, matching the three posters that were on one of the walls; brand new teddy bears sat in a line on the windowsill and the curtains were a dark purple. It was certainly a bright and colourful room but everything seemed to fit there perfectly, like it belonged.

"What do you think, mum?" Gracie asked from beside her.

"I love it," Georgie grinned down at her. "Do you like it?"

"Yes," she nodded enthusiastically. "Dad bought everything and we decorated the room together, just the two of us. We had a paint fight!" She laughed, before biting her lip and nervously asking, "I really like it here, do we have to leave this home too?"

Georgie knelt down and put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, shaking her head. "No, sweetheart. We never have to move again, I promise. No matter what happens, this is our home now, okay?"

"Okay," she smiled, her fears now gone. "Can dad stay too? It's so great having him around! And he's finding grandpa, so he can live with us when he comes back too."

Georgie hesitated. One of her big parenting rules was that she would never lie to her daughter- she may keep the truth from her to protect her, but she would never ever lie to her. She hated liars herself, so why become one towards her own daughter? Finally, she spoke. "I think when grandpa comes back, he might want his own place."

"Does he not want to live with us anymore?!"

"No, it's not that. It's just that we should have our own place, don't you think? Grandpa can get a house close by though, and we can visit each other all the time."

"Hmm, okay," Gracie frowned, still unsure of the idea of not living with her grandpa. "But dad's staying, isn't he?"

"Maybe," Georgie smiled. "We'll see... Now, why don't you draw me a welcome home picture whilst I go and make us something to eat?"

"Okay," she nodded.

Not long after, Georgie left Gracie's bedroom and wandered downstairs to find Trace in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a frown on his face and his arms crossed. "Hey," Georgie said gently.

He looked up, the frown still on his face. "I wanted to cook you something; the doctor said you should relax and not move about too much, so I thought I'd do it for you. I went food shopping just the other day, and there's barely anything left in the fridge or the freezer. For such a little girl, Gracie sure does eat a lot."

Georgie laughed. "Tell me about it. You were exactly the same at her age, if I remember correctly."

The frown drifted away and Trace grinned as he said, "yes, but that was the year you wouldn't eat anything other than toast and chocolate."

"It was the perfect diet," she joked. "Don't worry about the food, we can just order a pizza today and go shopping tomorrow."

"I'll go shopping," he corrected her. "You will stay at home and relax. Okay?"

Georgie nodded before blurting out, "will you move in with us?" Trace raised his eyebrows and Georgie's eyes widened. "I mean, it's perfectly understandable if you say no. We've only just been reunited, you've got what's probably a nice apartment... I just thought it'd be better. For Gracie. Because then she'll have both of us around and I think me and her would both feel safer if you were here and-"

"Georgie," he interrupted her, "stop. You don't have to explain yourself. I was going to suggest me moving in anyway, I don't like the thought of not being with either of you when your madman of an uncle is still on the loose after attempting to murder you." He walked over to her and placed a hand on each of her cheeks. "Plus, I simply just want to be with you both."

"But your apartment-"

"Victor can have it," he shrugged. "He's been looking for a place in Denver for a while now without any luck. I don't care."

Georgie smiled and said, "I really love the man you've grown to be."

"Well, I'm only who I am because I had you in my memories and I knew you wouldn't want to come back to find I was a complete loser," he smirked. "And just so you know, I really love who you've become as well. You're so strong and such a good mother... You've certainly matured from the rebellious teenager I remember."

"I still have that side of me, don't worry," she said with a cheeky grin plastered across her face. "And Gracie inherited it as well."

"Oh god," Trace moaned. "How am I going to cope with the both of you?! You'll be the death of me, this house is going to be completely crazy!"

"Shut up," she laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You know, we've been back together for a few days now and you still haven't kissed me yet. It's disappointing."

"Do you want me to kiss you?"

"Very much so, Benedict."

"Your wish is my command, Carter."

Their lips met and they both smiled into the kiss. It felt to them both just like their first kiss: ordinary, not particularly special, but again, the feelings behind the kiss were special instead. Sparks of love flew between them; passion that had been building up in both of them for years, passion they'd never let anybody else feel because they wanted to stay faithful to their soulfinder. Their tongues met but didn't fight for dominance. Instead, they caressed each other and swirled around in a dance, proving that they fit together perfectly, just like Jack and Rose from Titanic did, despite their differences. Trace's arms linked around Georgie's waist and her hands tangled themselves in his hair; a kissing position that was their most used when they were younger.

It felt like the kiss would never end. Like they wouldn't even break apart to breathe- it would just be an endless kiss, their last breath shared.

But, they broke apart when they heard their daughter's voice. "Ew, gross! Stop that, I don't need to see it."

Trace and Georgie both laughed, breathing heavily, their eyes meeting in delight. "I'm not apologizing, Gracie," Trace said. "I like kissing your mum."

"And I like kissing your dad," Georgie added.

"And I like singing but not everybody likes it so you don't see me going around singing, do you?" Gracie replied, sighing loudly. "Kissing's horrible."

"I highly disagree," Trace said in a fake deep voice. "And I am the king, so I am always right."

Gracie grinned. "But I'm the princess and I'm beautiful so more people listen to me!"

Her parents both laughed and Georgie said, "well, you're certainly right about that. I thought you were drawing me a picture, Gracie."

"I can't! I'm too hungry!" She complained.

"You're always hungry," Trace rolled his eyes.

"I want food."

"Okay, okay," he laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. "We're ordering pizza. What's your favourite topping?"

"I always have everything on it!" She exclaimed. "And then I have ice cream and cookies."

"You eat a lot."

"So? I like eating, dad. I don't understand how some girls can't eat a lot, they're crazy."

"They really are," he nodded seriously. "Because food is just delicious!"

"I know right!"

Georgie laughed and sat down at the table because despite being released from hospital today, she was still exhausted and hurting a lot. "I'll phone the pizza place," Trace said. "I'll just get my mobile from the living room."

Before he left the kitchen, he leant down to kiss Georgie again, which caused Gracie to shout at him and call him disgusting, consequently making her parents laugh.


	11. Chapter 11

_Author's note: Thank you to bookwormlove14, DaisyXo, book-lover-book and butterflylion14 for reviewing the last chapter. Honestly, the more reviews I get, the more I want to update, and your reviews mean the world to me because it makes me feel good about myself and my writing, so thank you._

_(Shamelessly promoting myself here, don't hate me) Do any of my readers like The Mortal Instruments series? If you do, check out my Malec fanfic 'The Memories' which is the sequel to 'The Exception' ;)_

_Ok, so, we're finally getting to the drama, oooh! I don't know how long I'm planning for this fanfic to be, but it's certainly not finished yet. And things aren't going to be as straightforward as you might think they are- neither Georgie nor Laurel will have the plans they have in mind go right! To quote River Song: "Spoilers" ;)_

_Please continue to review, thank you for reading! xxx_

* * *

**8th December 2012**

"I just still can't believe what I've missed," Georgie said to Karla. The whole family was at Saul and Karla's house, most of them in the living room whilst Karla and Georgie cooked a meal together. "How much everybody's grown up in just nine years. Trace is a policeman, Vick works for the FBI, Yves' some sort of billionaire genius. I wish I'd been here to see it all happen."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Karla replied. "Of course, we all wish you had been here too, but we can't change the past. You're here again now, that's all that matters."

"Yeah, I guess," she sighed. "I kind of always hoped that when I came back, all the boys would have found their soulfinders and be extremely happy, but none of them have... it sucks."

"It does," Karla said sadly, feeling pity for six of her sons. "Victor and Zed are the worst, their anger is just building up and the pressure of the work they do is weighing heavily on them. They'll all find their soulfinders eventually, I refuse to believe they won't."

Georgie nodded. "I get that. I want Gracie to find her soulfinder before it gets to the point where she desperately needs him."

"Me too," Karla smiled. "Anyway, this evening is supposed to be an evening of celebration that you and Gracie are both with us, so lets not dwell on the negative side of things. How are things between you and Trace, dear?"

"Really good," she grinned. "Better than I ever expected them to be. He's been busy with work recently, but I understand that."

"What about you? Do you have a job at all?"

"No. My dad left me enough money to get Gracie and I settled and for us to live off for a month or so. Mind you, I haven't spent much of that now because Trace insists on buying everything we need. Now that Gracie's at school, I find myself bored at home, you know? I want a job; I don't want to live off Trace's money for the rest of my life, even though I know he'd be fine with that. I don't know what I could do though," she shrugged. "My dad pulled me out of school here before I got my qualifications and I never went back to school when we were in Leeds. I didn't have a job there either, my dad said it was too dangerous. But I want to get a job here, I want to create a life for Gracie and I here... But where am I supposed to get a good job that doesn't need you to have decent qualifications?"

Karla paused for a moment, thinking deeply about Georgie's question. "Hmm... How would you feel about working with young children?"

Georgie tilted her head to the side and said, "I think I'd quite enjoy it. I loved looking after Gracie when she were younger, I'd be okay with doing it again. Why, what do you have in mind?"

"A friend of mine runs a preschool down in the area near the park. She's looking for a new teacher for one of the classes, you should apply."

"Wouldn't I need qualifications for that, though?"

"Usually, yes. But my friend's a savant herself, and she's big on us helping each other out. I can put in a good word for you, she'll listen to me. Besides, she's not getting any other applicants, apparently. She's getting desperate."

"Thank you, Karla," Georgie smiled. "Will you give me her number before I leave this evening? I'll call her first thing tomorrow."

"Sure, dear."

"Thanks. I'm just going to go check on Gracie."

Karla nodded in acknowledgement and went back to dicing the vegetables and Georgie wandered back into the packed living room. Gracie was sat by the coffee table, getting Yves to help her with the maths homework she'd been struggling with, so Georgie walked over to where Trace was sat on the sofa looking through a few files for work.

"Any developments?" She asked as she sat down next to him.

"Just one, that I found out about this morning," he nodded and flicked through a few papers until he found the right one. "A security tape of a petrol station caught an image of Lawrence last night; the first sight of him since the car accident. He was meeting up with someone, but it's not clear enough to see who it is. Look."

Georgie looked down at the photo. A tall, wiry man with blonde hair - presumably her uncle Lawrence - that she certainly recognised after he approached her, was leaning against a wall; he had a busted nose and an arm in a sling that gave Georgie a slight bout of satisfaction to know he didn't leave the accident unscathed. Next to him was a figure in a black hoodie, their features hidden as they had their back to the camera. The figure had gentle, womanly curves and baggy trousers.

"That's a woman," Georgie pointed at the figure.

"What makes you say that?"

"Look at her curves, Trace. No man has bodily curves like that," she rolled her eyes.

"Huh. You're right," he said after studying the picture a moment. He looked up at her and smiled. "Maybe I should hire you to help me with the case."

"No can do," she grinned. "Karla's going to help me get a job as a preschool teacher."

"Really? That's great!" He wrapped an arm around her and pressed his lips to hers.

"Mum, dad! What have I told you? No kissing!" They heard Gracie shout, causing her uncles to laugh around her.

Trace and Georgie pulled away from each other, amused smirks on their faces as if they were lovestruck teenagers caught in the act. He kissed her on the forehead and said, "I think you'd make a brilliant preschool teacher. I'm proud of you."

"Thank you," she smiled. Suddenly, her new mobile phone - bought by Trace, despite Georgie saying she could afford her own - vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and frowned when she noticed the caller ID said 'unknown number'. "Hello?" She answered the call.

A cold, calculating female voice answered. "Hello, Georgeanne Carter."

"Who is this? How did you get this number?" She leaned forward in her seat; Trace copied her, his eyes trained on her face as he shushed his family, causing the room to fall nearly silent.

"I have my resources," came the reply. "Tell me, Georgeanne, do you really think that you're safe with the Benedict family? If anything, that puts you in even more danger as you now have their enemies knowing about you."

She gulped, her breathing shaky as she again asked, "who is this?"

"Just an... Old friend of your father's, I guess you could say. It's so lovely to see him again."

Georgie froze, suddenly feeling freezing cold despite all the heating that was on in the house. "What do you mean by that? Do you know where my dad is?"

A fake, ugly laugh sounded on the other end. "Of course I do, silly. He's right here with me now."

"I don't believe you," she shook her head. "You're lying."

"No. I'm not. Your dad informed you about an enemy he was running from, didn't he? Well, that would be me. The one and only."

"What have you done with him?"

"I haven't killed him if that's what you're asking. Not yet, anyway. I need something from him but he refuses to give it to me unfortunately."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I think Mark needs some convincing. A reason to tell me where what I'm looking for is. And that is where you come in."

"What can I do?" Georgie asked. "I doubt my dad's told me where it is."

"Well, of course not, because he's kept the truth from you for a very long time," the woman replied in a snarky tone. "No, my idea is much more simpler than that. I want you to come and meet me. You'll get to see your father again, and you can persuade him to give me the information I want. He'll listen to his daughter, I know he will."

"And if I don't? What will you do then?" Tears slid down her cheeks.

"Georgie, who is it?" Trace asked in a desperate hush, but she ignored him and continued staring into space, focusing solely on the woman on the other end of the phone line.

"If you don't," she answered, "then I will have to take other measures, ones that you won't like very much. You're not as safe with the Benedict's as you seem to think you are, and neither is Gracie. If you don't come to me Georgie, I'll just have to kidnap Gracie and hurt her. That will surely get Mark talking... And then, I'll kill them both. Whereas if you do what I am asking of you, both you and your father will be able to leave alive."

"I'll never let you anywhere near my daughter!" She hissed angrily.

"Oh it's easy to say that, but I always get what I want. I'll find a way. So, are you going to help me?"

"Absolutely not," she responded. "I'll never help you. I'm not going to let you hurt my daughter either."

"We'll see about that," the woman remained calm. "If you change your mind, Georgeanne, I'm in house number 143 on Ready Street. And if you tell anybody else that address, I will kill your father as soon as your police buddies raid the house, do you understand?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"Good. You have three days to make your decision. Choose wisely," she said before finally hanging up.

Georgie dropped the phone to the floor, hands shaking and tears falling down her face. She allowed Trace to pull her into his arms and started sobbing loudly.

* * *

Laurel hung up the phone, a smile on her face, and turned around. Chained to the wall, with thick tape across his mouth, was Mark, blood coming from various cuts all over his body and sweat dripping from his skin. She walked over to him and gently brushed his cheek, causing him to look up at her, his dark eyes full of hate.

She grinned and dropped her hand. "Did you hear that phone conversation?" She asked. "You're going to tell me what and where the weapon is eventually, whether you want to or not, Mark." She slipped her phone back into her pocket and sighed. "I never wanted to hurt Georgie, you know. This whole cat and mouse thing you've been playing all these years is ridiculous. I would have left her alone, let her live her life, but you've made this the only way to get what I want. So, I have no choice but to either hurt Georgie or Gracie. And, knowing Georgie, she won't let me even start planning to kidnap Gracie.

I have a feeling, Mark, that we'll be seeing our daughter here very soon."


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's note: I'm sorry that this isn't a very long chapter :(_

_Also, like I said in chapter one's 'authors note', this is the first in my own Finding Sky series. (Of course, I don't own the Benedict's though. Unfortunately) Well, for the second one, I had an idea randomly come to me and started to write it down before I forgot it, but I wasn't planning on posting it until this story is finished. But, I think I'd be able to post the second one without spoiling the end of this, so it's up to you. Should I start posting the second story, or should I wait until this one is finished? Your decision._

_Please keep reviewing, it means a lot to me! xo_

* * *

**9th December 2012**

Laid in bed at 2am, Georgeanne was wide awake. She turned her head to the side and looked at Trace who was sleeping peacefully, his face looking young and his breathing even. She envied him that he could sleep at a time like this and felt sad that she was about to do something that would undoubtedly upset him.

She saw no other option though, except to go to the woman herself. Her father was in danger, this was the only way she could save him without Gracie getting hurt as well.

She couldn't let anybody hurt her daughter. And if that meant getting hurt herself, then so be it.

She'd gone to bed that night wearing a black hoodie and black leggings, claiming it was because of the cold, so when she silently slipped out of bed, all she had to do was put on her sneakers. She looked at Trace one last time before leaving the bedroom, sneaking downstairs and out the front door.

She was determined to get to where the woman was and save her dad; she couldn't think of anything else other than getting Mark out of there alive. She knew that if the roles were reversed, Trace would be doing anything to save Saul, so she hoped that he would someday understand, if only slightly.

The street was eerily quiet and dark, only two of the streetlights working. There wasn't a sound in the air, not even a bird chirping or a dog barking or a car's engine as someone came home late. She started off at a brisk walk, trying not to draw attention to herself but still moving quickly. But, when she was halfway down the street, she heard a scuffling noise behind her, as if somebody was hurrying to catch up with her.

Without turning around to see who it was, Georgie started running as fast as could, fully aware that the footsteps behind her were pounding on the pavement as they ran after her. Was it Trace? She wondered. Or was it somebody else? Her terrified thoughts caused her to stumble a little and that's all it took for whoever was behind her to grab her by the waist, pull her back to him, and cover her mouth with one of his hands before she could bring herself to scream for help.

He started to drag her back down the street, not roughly. He was being tough, yes, but he wasn't hurting her, which confused Georgie. If he wanted to kidnap or kill her, wouldn't he not care if he were hurting her? She tried to struggle, but the man - at least, she thought it was a man - was far too strong for her to fight.

When they got to Trace and Georgie's house, he let go of Georgie and she fell forward, coughing as she got her breath back. She turned around, ready to defend herself against her attacker, only to see that she knew him and he was looking at her as if he were scared of her reaction.

"_Victor?!_" She shouted. "What the hell? I thought you were somebody trying to kill me! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

He didn't answer. Instead, he glanced towards the house; she followed his eyeline and saw Trace, Zed and Will stood in the doorway. Trace's eyes were puffy and his hair was sticking up everywhere - clearly he'd just been woken up - and he looked seriously pissed off. His eyes met Georgie's furiously, and he shook his head at her in disbelief. _"Get in here," _he said into her mind. _"Now, Georgie."_

With a sigh, she realised she had no choice but to do as he said. She could have tried to run again, but she stood no chance against four Benedict brothers; it'd be pointless even trying to get away. She walked up to the house with Victor hot on her heels, and when she got to the door, Trace grabbed her arm and pulled her into the living room, practically throwing her onto the sofa. The other three joined them in the room after closing the front door. They stood there, arms folded, looking down at her angrily.

Georgie felt like she was back at school, being intimidated and shouted at by the teachers. "Jesus," she said. "Are you going to just stand there looking like security men or is somebody going to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Zed was the first to answer her. "Before you left our house yesterday, I had a vision of you sneaking out of your house and I got a really bad feeling about it." _Of course_, Georgie thought to herself._ I should have remembered that there are two people in the family who have visions of the future. _"I told Trace about it, and he asked us three to watch your house tonight and make sure you didn't get away."

"Well that's just being over-dramatic. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go for a walk," she lied.

"Don't lie, Georgie," Trace snapped. "Why can't you just tell me the truth? Please? I know you. I know that if you thought you could save your dad without Gracie getting hurt, you'd do whatever it took. But don't you think it seems too easy? That she'd let you both go if you got your dad to tell her some information she needs? There's more to it, and I'm not letting you go running to her without knowing everything!"

"I can't just sit here doing nothing!" She shouted, standing up. "She threatened to hurt our daughter, Trace!"

"So we'll protect Gracie and not let anybody near her!" He shouted back. "What if this woman, whoever she is, hurt you, or worse, killed you? How do you think that would make me feel? I would lose you all over again, and I can't deal with that; I'd go crazy. And then Gracie would be left without either of her parents, did you think of that? No, you didn't... Now, clearly you know where this woman is staying otherwise you wouldn't have known where to go tonight, so just tell us, Georgie."

"No."

"I can make you tell me," Victor said menacingly.

"You stay out of my head," Georgie hissed. "I can't tell you because you'll probably send all your men or whatever there, and she said she'd kill my dad instantly if that happened! I'm not taking that risk."

"You underestimate us," Victor said calmly. "We wouldn't go running in there straight away. We have no proof that she's hurting your dad in there, so it'd be pointless. I believe you, but we need evidence; it's the law. We'd most likely gather more information about this woman, what she's doing, and watch the house for a little while, before we'd go charging in there."

"But-"

"Mum?" Gracie appeared in the doorway, looking half asleep in her green onesie. "What's all the shouting about? Why are these lot here?"

Georgie sighed and smiled at her daughter. "I'm sorry we woke you up, sweetie. It's nothing important, go back to bed, we won't shout anymore."

"Come on, Gracie," Zed walked over to her and picked her up, "I'll take you back to bed while the adults talk, okay?"

"Okay, Uncle Zed," she smiled at him and sleepily rested her head on his chest as he took her out of the room.

Will was the first to speak again, in a quiet and hushed voice. "Look, Georgie," he said, "I completely understand why you thought that sneaking out and doing as the woman said was the right thing to do. You wanted to protect Gracie, and you wanted to save your dad. You didn't do anything wrong; my brothers here just aren't thinking about the love a mother has for her child, they're not thinking about how your life's goal now is to keep your daughter safe and happy."

"Exactly," Georgie said sadly, nodding her head. Will had always been a peacemaker in the family- he could sense danger, which made him be able to easily spot when an argument was going to get unbelievably bad, and it was in his nature and his instincts to know exactly what to do to get rid of that danger.

"But now that we've stopped you from running in there, you need to think about this," he said gently, trying to get her to understand where he and her brothers were coming from. "You've seen all those action movies where people are kidnapped and such, haven't you? And does the main character ever rescue that person on his own? No, he has people helping him. Because things turn out better when you work in a team. I'm training to have the same job as Vick, so I've been with him on a few cases, and all of them turned out amazingly well because his team worked together perfectly. Do you get what I'm saying here?"

"Yes," she nodded with a sigh. "I have more chance of saving my dad and keeping Gracie safe if I'm not on my own."

Will breathed a sigh of relief that he had got her to understand. "Exactly, Georgie. So, can you please tell us where this woman is staying? I promise, we won't go charging in there, we'll be very careful so we can make sure your dad isn't hurt."

"I want to be kept up to date with everything in the case," she said matter-of-factly, folding her arms across her chest. "And when you go in there, I'm coming with you. I know how to fight and how to use a gun, my dad taught me."

"Georgie," Trace said. "I'm not letting you go in there, it's too dangerous."

"You can't tell me what to do," she responded. "Besides, if it makes you feel any better, you can stay by my side the whole time. And before we go in, you can train me a bit more so you can make sure I can defend myself. Okay?"

Trace looked at the woman in front of him and knew that he was never going to win this battle. In all the time he had known her, Georgie had always been stubborn and when she wanted something, she never changed her mind. "Fine," he finally said. "Victor and I will both train you how to fight and use a gun. I doubt Mark taught you everything. And when we're in there, you stay by my side and do what I tell you to do."

"Deal," she replied. "She's in house 143 on Ready Street."


	13. Chapter 13

_Author's note: I apologize for the lack of updates for a while. I was having internet problems, and I was really busy with college work, and I turned 18 in February so I've been doing a lot of shopping ;) Haha. Anyway, updates are back to normal from now. I've been writing chapters still even without my internet, so I have the next four chapters also written up; I just need to edit them and all that._

_Please leave reviews so I know that people are still reading! :D xo_

* * *

**10th December 2012**

From the kitchen window, Karla looked out into the back garden where Trace and Victor were going through some physical training with Georgie. First, they'd had her warm up by doing stretches then running laps around the garden for half an hour expecting her to be unfit and admit defeat, but she didn't even seem the slightest bit out of breath. Now, they were going through some fighting techniques with her, being patient teachers and making her redo things over and over and over again to make sure she was doing it correctly.

Saul came up behind Karla, slipping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. "What are you worrying about?" He asked gently.

"How are you so sure I'm worrying about anything?" She replied nonchalantly.

"Because you get this little crease between your eyebrows when you are, which you have now. Karlie, talk to me."

She sighed and quietly said, "this case is just taking its toll on me, that's all. Firstly, we were completely wrong about Mark this whole time. Yes, he didn't act very nice towards us or Trace and he seemed very secretive, but now we've just found out that all he was trying to do is protect his daughter. We probably would have done the same thing in his position. If we'd known that he was in trouble, if only I'd had a vision... we have contacts, we could have helped him."

"Don't blame yourself, my love," Saul said softly, kissing her neck. "There's nothing we could do. Mark didn't ask for our help and if we had known, he would have probably still left. He has trust issues but really, after everything, you can't blame him."

Karla sighed again and nodded her head. "I guess so... But it's not just that that's bothering me."

"You're worried about the children," Saul presumed correctly. "You're not the only one. Trace, Victor, Will and Georgie will all be going in there when the time comes. I'm terrified they'll get hurt as well, but we have to let them make their own decisions and trust that they'll look after each other in situations like that. They're all good at what they do, and they're making sure Georgie is going to be too, so we just have to have faith in them. They'll be okay."

"You don't know that," Karla continued, proving that not even the words of her beloved could squash her worries for the safety of her children.

Saul sighed, knowing full well - but desperately wishing - that he couldn't take away his wife's pain and anguish, despite how much he wanted to. "Uriel should be here soon with Gracie after picking her up from school. Why don't you do some baking with her when she gets here? It'll distract you and keep Gracie busy so that the others can carry on with their training."

"Okay," Karla nodded, grateful that Saul knew her well enough to know just the right ways to distract her; this example being just one of few things that could. Despite this though, she knew that her worries were no where near to disappearing and she had a feeling she wouldn't be getting much sleep until this case was over and done with.

* * *

That night, Trace and Georgie were sat up in their king size bed with cozy, dark purple bedding, an awkward and tense silence between the two. All day, Trace had been solely focused on Georgie's training, pushing and pushing her until the point where she felt like she would collapse. _All of this training just for one night_, Georgie thought to herself, _it hardly seems necessary. _However when she'd brought this thought up to Trace and Victor, they'd got angry with her and said they had no idea what to expect so she had to be prepared for anything.

Other than talking to her about the training and telling her what to do, Trace unfortunately hadn't spoke many words to Georgie, and she was at breaking point. She looked up at Trace who's eyes were trained on the TV - which was playing reruns of _Friends_ - but she had a feeling he wasn't really watching the show, and she sighed before finally saying, "Trace. Are you mad at me or something?"

Trace let out a gust of breath, sounding exhausted, and answered without looking at her. "Yeah, I am. I don't like that you won't leave this to the professionals. I know he's your dad and you want to be there for him, but I wish you'd wait outside and not put yourself in danger."

"Oh, but it's okay for you to put yourself in danger?" She returned.

"That's different. Putting myself in danger for others is part of my job description! You're the one that told me to follow my dreams of working in the police force, you knew it was a dangerous job right from the beginning."

"That doesn't mean I don't worry about you," she said, blinking back the tears that threatened to make an appearance. "If I had my own way, you wouldn't be going in there, but you are, so I have to trust that you'll make sure not to get hurt and that you'll come out of there unharmed. And you have to have that trust in me."

Finally, he looked at her, pain written all over his face. He hadn't bothered to hold back his tears like Georgie had. "I'm just so scared that you'll get hurt and I'll lose you again," he said quietly, as if saying the words any louder would make them happen.

"Oh, Trace." She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him on his cheek. He wrapped his arms around her waist as they angled their bodies towards each other, resting his forehead against hers as they looked into each other's eyes. "That won't happen. And you know why? Because we're going in together, and we'll come out together too. We're in this, you and I, together; nothing is going to change that. We'll protect each other, and when it's all done with, we'll come back to our daughter and we'll be a family. We'll get married as soon as we can, and maybe have that son we always talked about. So, you see, it's not all bad. We need to do this so we can get past it and move on with our life together."

Trace grinned euphorically and asked, "Georgeanne Carter, did you just ask me to marry you?"

"I guess I did," she shrugged, a smirk growing on her face. "So?"

He laughed. "I guess we're getting married then."

"I guess we are." She kissed him, softly and sweetly, before he pulled back. "What's wrong?"

"Just... You're not going to change your mind about going into that place, are you?" He frowned.

"'Fraid not," she replied, still stubborn like she always had been.

"And I hate that answer," he sighed. "But, I guess you're right: we're in this together. Going in together, coming out together."

"That's right," she nodded with a smile. "I love you, Trace."

"I love you too," he replied with his own smile.

They kissed again, the kiss being more passionate this time, and buried down into the sheets together, the TV show now forgotten and their attention focused solely on each other.

* * *

**11th December 2012**

After dressing and getting ready for work, Trace went downstairs and into the kitchen where Georgie was stood at the counter, drying all the cutlery, plates, bowls and cups after washing them. He wrapped his arms around her waist, gently placing numerous kisses on her neck, knowing it was a turn on for her.

"Mmm, good morning," she giggled in response. "Shouldn't you be leaving for work?"

"Yep." Another kiss. "But I don't care." Kiss. "So what if I'm late?" Kiss. "I want Gracie to be the first to know about our engagement, and I want to be here when you tell her." Three kisses.

Georgie spun around in his arms, hands clutching the counter behind her, and looked up at him. "Wow," she said with a chuckle. "I really did ask you to marry me last night, didn't I?"

"You sure did," he laughed. "Not very traditional... I was supposed to get down on one knee with a beautiful ring and ask you after making a long and cheesy speech."

"Ah, but you know I'm not really into the whole soppy romance stuff, I much prefer it this way," she beamed.

Trace laughed again, knowing that she was right- she always had fake-gagged at stuff like that. He bent down to kiss her but was interrupted as Gracie came into the room and announced her presence by saying, "daughter in the room. No kissing."

"Yes ma'am," he replied, winking at Georgie before pulling away. "Gracie, sit down please. Your mother and I have something to tell you."

"Okay," Gracie said slowly, confused. She sat at the kitchen table as Georgie put a bowl of her favourite cereal in front of her and ate a spoonful of it before saying, "what's going on?"

"Actually, there's two things we need to discuss with you." Georgie said. "You're going to have to stop going to school for a little while." Her and Trace had discussed this in depth over the past few days and had decided this was the easiest way to keep Gracie safe. They'd also decided that because of Georgie's rule to never lie to Gracie, they'd try and explain the truth to her as well as they could.

"What? But I like school! Why?"

"Well, you see," Trace started to explain. "There's a very bad person around that might try and hurt you because they don't like your mum or your grandpa. As a precaution, we think that it's best if you don't go to school, just so we know that you're safe. Me, your Uncle Victor and your Uncle Will, are working on this though and we're going to catch this bad person, and when we do, you can go back to school."

"You won't fall behind in your classes though," Georgie added. "We'll collect your work from school and you can do it at Grandma Karla and Grandpa Saul's house, because you'll be staying there during the day."

"What about you, mum?" Gracie asked, still pouting with moodiness.

"Well, I have a job interview today but afterwards I'll join you at Karla and Saul's house. If I don't get the job, I'll stay there all day with you, okay? Do you understand? I know you like school but this is for your own safety Gracie and we really need you to act grown up about it and not kick up a fuss. Can you do that for us, please?"

Gracie moaned in protest but nodded her head and said, "ok. But it's only for a little bit?"

"Of course," Georgie nodded.

"Fine," she sighed. "What else did you want to tell me? Is it something else I won't like?"

"No, I think you'll like this one."

Gracie smiled up at them hopefully and excitedly. "What?"

"Gracie, your father and I have decided that we're going to get married."

She gasped, her brown eyes growing wide and her mouth opening into an 'O'. "No way!" She exclaimed. "Oh, that's so amazing! Can I be a bridesmaid? I'll get to wear a pretty dress and everyone will be looking at me! Can you get married on Christmas? Oh, that would be so romantic!"

Trace and Georgie laughed at her enthusiasm before looking at each other. "A Christmas wedding does sound nice..." Georgie started. "Would we able to organize a wedding so quickly?"

"With help from my mum, I have no doubts that we'd be able to," Trace grinned. "Did we just set a date for our wedding?"

"I think we did," she bit her lip, smirking. She turned back to Gracie. "Looks like we're getting married on Christmas."

Gracie cheered and jumped up from her seat, cereal now forgotten, and launched herself at Georgie, hugging her tightly. Georgie hugged her back and looked at Trace. "I think she's happy," she said.

Trace laughed, nodding his head in agreement.


	14. Chapter 14

**11th December 2012**

Alone in his office, Trace looked at the board with all the case's details on, frustrated that there had been nothing new added to it, other than the address this woman was apparently staying at. They still hadn't found Lawrence Davis and they still had no idea who the woman was or what information she wanted from Mark. The CCTV they'd installed near 143 Ready Street didn't reveal anything- nobody was going in or out of the house and the curtains were always closed with the lights off. It was possible she was using the back door for an entrance and exit but unfortunately they couldn't put any cameras near the back of the house without raising suspicion.

After last night he was officially engaged, so he should have been happy today, but all he could think about was how much he wanted this case to be over with and how it was no where near to being resolved, which really put a damper on his mood and made him feel grim instead of happy.

But, like a magic twist of fate, a smile spread across his face and his body warmed up when his mobile rang and the caller ID indicated it was Georgie; just hearing his soulfinder's voice made him happy. "Hey," he answered the call. "How was the job interview?"

"I got the job!" She squealed. "Your mum's friend, Samantha, loved me and offered me the job straight after the interview. Can you believe it? Oh my god!"

"That's brilliant, well done!" He congratulated her happily. "When do you start?"

"In the new year," she replied. "She has a supply teacher for up until the Christmas holidays, so she doesn't need me yet. What are you up to?"

"Working," he replied grimly. "Trying - and failing brilliantly - to figure out more about this case. Do you have any idea what information the woman wants from your dad?"

"No, I've told you, I have no idea."

"Do you think it's something about the savant net? Maybe a code or a list of people or something..."

"I don't think so. My dad hated doing jobs for the net, he tended to keep to himself. He used to work for them every now and then, but only because his brother James did. As soon as James moved away, my dad stopped working for them and hasn't had contact with the net since then. Unless this woman wants information from about 20 odd years ago, I doubt it's do with the net."

"Okay, well it was worth asking," Trace sighed. "Are you on your way to my parents' house now?"

"Yeah," she answered. "And don't worry, I won't tell them about us getting married until this evening when you're there. And I told Gracie not to tell anyone either."

"Good," Trace smiled. "I'll let you go then, I don't want you on the phone while you're driving."

"It's on speaker and I have both hands on the wheel so it's not that dangerous, but whatever," she laughed. "I'll see you later then. I love you."

"I love you too," Trace replied before hanging up and putting his phone back in his pocket.

There was something about Georgie's story that bothered Trace. Why would Mark break contact with the net just because his brother moved away? It wasn't something one would normally do. He sensed there was more to the story, another secret that Mark had kept from Georgie - probably to protect her and keep her safe - and one that Trace was determined to find out.

An hour later, Victor was in Trace's office, sat on the other side of his desk from him. "So have you found anything?" Victor asked after Trace had explained his suspicions to him.

Trace nodded slowly. "I did a background check on Mark first, but I didn't find anything we don't already know. Then I did a background check on James Carter and it was pretty much normal: grew up with Mark and their parents, no criminal convictions, found his soulfinder Alison when he was just twelve, had a power like yours and occasionally did work for the net as well as owning his own bakery."

"So I'm guessing things started getting weird about 20 years ago when he moved away?" Victor presumed.

"Right," Trace answered with a single brisk nod. "It took me a while to find this information out because it was classified and had serious security on it, but I managed to get it in the end... Vick, about 20 years ago, James Carter informed the net that he'd discovered a powerful weapon of sorts - I don't know what, it was never recorded so clearly they're keeping it as private as they can - that somehow, I don't know how, can stop the war between the savant net and rogue savants. Only a few members of the net know about it, like I said, they kept it as private as they could, and shortly after James and his wife Alison left their home town. Nobody knows where they are, they went into hiding."

"Wow," Victor said as he took it all in. "Why are the net hiding the weapon though? It could save lives! What are they thinking?"

"No idea," he shrugged. "Maybe it could cause more destruction than good? Beats me," he sighed. "I think this might be what the woman wants to know. Maybe she found out about the weapon somehow and wants to know where James is."

"You think Mark knows?"

"Definitely," Trace said. "They're brothers, Mark probably helped him go into hiding, I bet. It's what I'd do for you or one of the others. I think Mark would rather be killed than reveal his brother's location. Think of everything he's done to keep Georgie safe... I have no doubts that he would do the same for his brother."

"He's a great man," Victor said softly. "It seems like he's always putting others before himself."

"He is. We need to bring him home, Vick. Georgie will be devastated if he's not here for Christmas. We've decided to get married. We wanted to get married as soon as possible and Gracie suggested a Christmas day wedding so we're going to ask mum to help us arrange it in time; we all know she'll be able to."

"That's great!" Victor grinned. "Congratulations, bro. I'm obviously going to be your best man, aren't I?"

"Of course," Trace returned the grin. "So, we need to get this case done with quickly and make sure Mark is here for the wedding."

"Okay," Victor nodded. "Did you hear that they got a glimpse of the woman on the CCTV?"

"Oh my god! I totally forgot about that! How could I forget about that?" Trace said, hitting his head in frustration. He opened up his laptop and went onto his emails, opening the one that had been sent to him with the photo. He put the photo on full screen and stared at the image. _That's Georgie_, was his first thought. Then, _no, it just looks a lot like her. _The woman was on the doorstep, talking to somebody on the phone. She had dirty blonde tied into a tight ponytail, a strong facial structure, big grey eyes and a few wrinkles here and there. Trace paled, his body going rigid as he turned the laptop round so Victor could see the photo. "Is it just me or does she look a lot like Georgie?"

Victor gasped as the same realization came to him. "Jesus, she does as well. Do you think they're related? Her mother, maybe?"

"Her mum, Laurel, died in a house fire when Georgie was little," Trace shook his head. "It couldn't possibly be her... But I definitely think this woman is related to Georgie somehow; they look too much like each other for them not to be."

"Are you going to tell Georgie?"

Trace paused for a moment before finally shaking his head. "No, I can't. She doesn't need to know, it'll distract her when we're in there and she might make a mistake that could get her hurt. I'll tell her afterwards."

"She deserves to know, Trace," he said gently.

"And I'll tell her afterwards," he snapped before breathing a sigh. "This is messed up."

"You're telling me," Victor said with his own sigh. "Wait a sec. Trace. Is that blood on her shoes?" He spun the laptop back around and as Trace looked back at the photo, he nodded his head as his eyes widened. Victor laughed triumphantly. "That's it! We only needed a little evidence to get a search warrant, and that's it right there. We can go save Mark."

"Georgie's not ready yet," Trace shook his head. "I'm not sending her in there unprepared."

"Two days then," Victor said. "That'll give us the time to work on her physical training more and take her to the shooting target range. I'll set everything up, the SWAT team and everybody else we'll need. Don't look so worried, Trace; this is good news. It's all going to be over soon."

* * *

_I know it's short, but please leave reviews! xo_


	15. Chapter 15

**12th December 2012**

Trace and Victor's mouths dropped wide open in shock as they both fell speechless. To keep up with Georgie's training, they had taken her to the shooting range at the police station to teach her how to correctly use a gun- she would have one on the mission just in case something went wrong and she needed it. The brothers had felt like laughing when Georgie had insisted on setting the gun up herself because she didn't look at all like the type of person who would know how to do that, but she'd surprised them when she'd done it correctly, quickly and efficiently.

Now, without any tutorial from either of the two men, she had just shot the centre of the target five times in a row, stood in the perfect shooting stance and not even flinching when the shot rang out loudly. Georgie put down the gun, took off the safety glasses and headwear, and turned around to look at the men with a grin on her face. "Well, did I pass your test? Am I good enough?"

"You can use a gun," Trace said, still in shock. "Like, _really_ use a gun."

"I know," she said slowly as if he were a two year old. "Like I told you, my dad taught me. So am I good enough, baby?"

Trace laughed and nodded his head as he said, "most definitely. You're almost better than Vick."

"I wouldn't go that far," Victor butted in. "Nobody's better than me."

"Aw, did he hurt your confidence, Victor?" Georgie teased, just like any ordinary sister would do so. "Don't worry, I won't try and steal your thunder."

"Ha-ha," Victor replied with a roll of his eyes and a smile. "I'm leaving. Don't stay here too long, mum will be expecting us there early, you know what she's like." He left the room, leaving Trace and Georgie alone.

Trace walked over to Georgie, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head. Georgie wrapped her arms around Trace and when he quietly said, "I'm so proud of you," she was randomly reminded of another time he said those five words to her...

_"It's so stupid!" Georgie shouted as her and Trace walked back to his house after school one day. "Mr Derek is the worst headteacher ever! So I failed another Maths test, big deal. It's not like it's my end of year result or anything. He should be supportive and offer me extra tutoring - I mean, I'd say no, but whatever, that's not the point. But no, being supportive is far too hard for that idiot."_

_"Let me guess, he gave you detention?" Trace said, trying to hide his smirk._

_"It's not funny, Trace!" Georgie hit his arm, frowning at him. "And no, actually, for once he didn't give me detention. It's much worse than that. He said that it was my fault I failed because I don't pay attention in class and my behaviour is 'unacceptable'-"_

_"Which is true-"_

_"And," she continued as if he hadn't interrupted, "now my punishment for that is being a 'big sister' to one of the first years. You know that new 'big brother and big sister' program they've introduced? I have to help this little girl with her homework, listen to her bitch about her friends and pretend that I like her when truthfully I'll probably want to kill her."_

_"I feel sorry for her," Trace laughed. "You're terrible with kids, I can't imagine what you'd be like as a mum."_

_"Shut up!" She shouted as if offended, but there was a grin on her face. "I hope this kid knows how lucky she is to have me give up my valuable time for her."_

_"Speaking of giving up your valuable time for others," Trace said. "My mum really needs help on Saturday when she's volunteering at the soup kitchen for the homeless shelter. There aren't many volunteers and she's trying to rope me and Uriel into helping. She asked me to ask you to help."_

_"Trace, I have nothing against helping the homeless, but Saturdays are my days for sleeping in until 1 in the afternoon, then doing nothing for the rest of the day. Now that may sound selfish, but I can't just change my plans that quickly," she smiled up at him innocently._

_"Baby, please," he moaned. "If you say no, my mum will take it out on me. We could make it fun, it might be a laugh, you never know. Plus, we could take pictures and show them to Mr Derek; it'll make him see that you can behave well and set a good example and it might get you out of the 'big sister' program."_

_"That's tempting..."_

_Trace leaned down and whispered into her ear, "just say yes."_

_"Trace!" She laughed and pushed him away. Looking up at him, she saw a strange look on his face and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You've already told your mum that I'll help out, haven't you." It wasn't a question because she knew that it was true._

_"Yeah, maybe," Trace answered with a short laugh. "I'm sorry! So you'll do it?"_

_"I guess I have no choice now, do I?" She sighed._

_"Nope," he grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "One step closer to being less selfish, Georgie. I'm proud of you." Sarcasm was evident in his voice, portraying clearly that he was just joking, but still, Georgie felt a slight bout of satisfaction at hearing him say he was proud of her._

Back in the present, Georgie grinned up at Trace and said thank you before mentioning that Victor was right: they should leave soon because Karla hated when they were late. Today, at the family dinner, they were going to announce their engagement and personally ask Karla to help them arrange the wedding, which she would undoubtedly be pleased and excited to do. Gracie and Victor had done a good job keeping it a secret for now, so they couldn't wait to tell the others.

Georgie was still in awe at how lucky she had been to arrive back in Wrickenridge and be welcomed with open arms. She knew that she could have turned up to find Trace happy with somebody else, but thankfully he had waited for her like she'd so desperately hoped for. Not only that, but their love for each other was stronger than ever, _and_ he had accepted Gracie instantly and was the perfect dad to her.

Sure, there were things going on in their lives - mainly the deal with Mark and the mystery woman - that were preventing her from being completely happy and relaxed, but they were dealing with it and they were going to get through this and come out of it even stronger than before, she was certain of that.

Back in the car, as they drove to Saul and Karla's house, Georgie said, "so. Tomorrow. It's really happening."

"Yes, it is," Trace said quietly, nodding his head. "The photo of the woman on the doorstep I told you about is all we needed to get a warrant to go in the house... I told Victor to hold off until I knew that you were ready, and I feel you are now, so tomorrow."

"I'm scared," Georgie breathed out.

"Me too. Which is surprising considering I don't usually get scared during my work, I just focus on the task at hand and get on with it. Maybe it's because this case is personal to me that I'm scared, or maybe it's simply because we don't completely know what we're getting ourselves into. Or maybe it's just my worrying for you that's outweighing the rest of my emotions."

"I can relate to that; I'm worried about you and my dad. And Victor and Will, I'm worried they'll get hurt in there too. I haven't really put much thought into the fact that I might get hurt, I'm too busy thinking about everybody else involved. I just wish I knew what this woman wants from my dad, and who she is."

Trace was silent for a long hesitant before he answered. "Yeah, well I guess we'll find out when we arrest her." He quickly changed the subject by saying: "Anyway, we have other things to think about right now. Like the fact we're about to tell our family we're getting married."

"Yeah," she grinned. "It's gonna be fine."

* * *

Hidden in the shrubbery and trees in the darkness, Laurel put the black binoculars up to her eyes. Looking down the steep ravine from the woods, the Benedict house was easy to spot- a large, three-floored structure not far from the ski slopes they worked at, with a large back garden circled by flowers that the mother, Karla, must have planted and tended to. The dining room was connected to the kitchen through an archway and had patio doors along one wall that led onto the deck in the back garden.

With her binoculars, Laurel could see straight into the dining room. The family of eleven were all squashed onto the dining table and Laurel betted Karla was secretly glad her other sons didn't have a soulfinder and a family of their own yet otherwise they all wouldn't fit at the table. They each had a meal in front of them, as well as other plates for them all to pick food from, and seemed to be chatting amongst themselves. Smiles and laughter were obvious on all of their faces which made Laurel frown in confusion: she didn't understand how they could all be so happy despite everything that was going on in their lives, everything that she had caused herself.

Beside her, Laurel's soulfinder - a tall, slim man with grey-streaked mousy brown hair - Peter, lowered his own binoculars and sighed. "Look at them," he muttered. "They're so happy, even after everything, simply because they have each other. I wish we had that- a big family for us to love, for us to have quality time with. It would be so much better than being criminals sneaking around like we're doing now."

This time, it was Laurel that sighed. It wasn't the first time she heard all of this from Peter and every time he mentioned it it bugged the hell out of her. Before he met Laurel, Peter had been a good man, a kind and sweet and gentle and caring man. And he still was all of that, he had just been dragged into all of this mess by his soulfinder, whom he would do anything for - even if he didn't agree with it - just because he loved her. Laurel loved Peter, she really honestly did, but he got on her nerves a lot too.

She lowered her binoculars and looked into Peter's warm brown eyes. "Peter," she said softly, "we've talked about this before. The world isn't a good place to live in for people like us, for savants. The Benedict's don't see that; they're oblivious to the fact that we shouldn't have to hide who we are, that we should be superior to ordinary humans. Once we take the net down - which we'll be able to do once we find out what and where the weapon is from Mark - we'll live in a better world, and then we'll able to relax and settle down. You know that I just want us to have a normal, happy life, with family as well. But that's just not possible right now."

"I just can't believe you can do this," he shook his head in disbelief. "Hurting Mark, I understand, because we have to do it and he deserves it for taking your daughter away from you even though he was your husband. Still is, technically. But all of this is hurting Georgie and Gracie as well - your daughter and granddaughter - and you just seem fine with it."

"Of course I'm not fine with it," Laurel snapped at him, "but I have no other option. Once this is all over, Georgie will come back to me because she'll realise that the world we create is better than this one, and she'll know it's the safest thing for Gracie. She'll resent the Benedict family for ever making her believe she should hide her powers from the world."

"You can't be sure that's how it will happen."

"You're right, I can't. It's entirely wishful thinking, right now," she replied. "But I have a plan for everything after this, and it will make everything perfect. You just have to trust me. You do trust me, don't you, Peter?"

"You know I do," he sighed. He lifted his binoculars and again looked down at the house. Laurel copied him. "There's no way we can get into that house, they have security everywhere."

"Hmm," Laurel hummed, seeing the problem. "Well then, we'll have to figure out another way to kidnap Gracie, won't we?"

* * *

_Ooooh, they're going after Gracie! :( Awww_

_Please leave a few reviews & then I'll upload the next chapter ;) _

_Charlotte xo_


	16. Chapter 16

**13th December 2012**

As Georgie walked home from a short trip to the supermarket with Gracie, her mind drifted to the plans for this evening nervously. Today was the day they went into the house to save her father. Gracie would be staying the night at Saul and Karla's house and didn't know anything about what was going to happen tonight, thankfully. Georgie was terrified, for everybody involved, not just herself. Anything could go wrong, anybody could get hurt, and she was praying that none of that would happen.

She looked at Gracie, who was skipping along in front of her mother and singing to herself. _I'm doing this for my dad and for Gracie, _she reminded herself. And truthfully, that made her nerves calm a little. The danger she was going to put herself in seemed worth it for them two; to save her father and keep her daughter safe from harm's way. What person wouldn't risk their life for that? Repeating the words to herself mentally helped her feel more brave and she breathed easily now, instead of feeling like she was going to have a heart attack from all her worrying.

"Gracie," she called out. "Come on, we'll take a shortcut through the park."

"Cool!" Gracie replied, skipping back to her mum and following her through the steel gateway. Wrickenridge Park was a beautiful place in the summer: it had a playground for kids, picnic tables and benches, large squares of grass for people to play with their dogs on and a cobbled pathway to walk on. "Can I go on the swings for a bit? Please, please, please."

Georgie rolled her eyes and laughed. "Okay, but only for ten minutes. We've got to get this shopping home and pack your bag for tonight."

"Grandma Karla told me to bring lots of movies for us to watch as well, remember!"

"I know," Georgie smiled. "Let's go to the swings then... No, Gracie, not that way!" She sighed and ran after her daughter who had chosen to run through the trees to the playground instead of going the long way round on the path. "Gracie!" Georgie moved through the trees, feeling like they were closing in on her and suffocating her as she kept her eyes peeled for Gracie who seemed to have disappeared. "Gracie, come on, this isn't funny. Come back... Gracie, where are you? Gracie?"

Panicked now, she started moving faster through the trees, practically screaming Gracie's name. She stumbled through the trees and stopped in shock at the sight of Gracie stood at the edge of the playground, being held by a man dressed in a balaclava who was covering Gracie's mouth. "Gracie!" Georgie called out in fear for her daughter. The little girl was struggling, tears spilling down her cheeks as she realised she stood no chance against the man.

Georgie moved forward, preparing herself to fight the man but screamed when somebody grabbed hold of her and pulled her back; somebody that was much stronger than her, so much so that she knew instantly she wouldn't be able to fight him.

* * *

Trace laughed at the punchline of Ivan's joke. Ivan was a cop a few years older than Trace whom quite often worked with him; today they were on patrol with Trace driving the police car through the streets of Wrickenridge- they hadn't had anything exciting happen all day. "That's a good one," he said to Ivan, referring to the joke. "Where the hell did you get that one?"

Ivan, a short and thin red-haired man grinned crookedly and replied, "my girlfriend's teenage brother. Funny, right? He's always coming out with jokes like that, it's unbelievable, I've never met anyone as funny as him."

"Benedict, Jackson." Their names came through the car radio, said by a man called Simon who also worked at the police station. "A call just came in by some lady. She was walking her dog in the park and heard somebody screaming for help. Found a woman tied to a tree apparently, crying and saying that her daughter had just been abducted. I need you to go and check it out."

"Sure, no problem," Trace answered, making a U-turn to head to the park. "Do either of the women know who abducted the daughter?"

"She didn't say," Simon replied. "Talk to them both when you get there, okay? And get them to come down to the station to file a report."

"Will do."

It took just ten minutes to get to the park, with the siren screaming and speeding past the other cars, and then after parking it was just a matter of finding the two women. "I don't see a soul around here," Ivan said after a quick scan of the park. "They could be near any of the trees, it could take forever to find them."

But then, as if by fate, they saw a woman step out of the trees that were just a short distance away from the two policeman. She was a pudgy woman, dressed in a long cream coat and holding a small Chihuahua in her arms. Her dark hair, tied in a tight chignon, had streaks of grey in and Trace had a feeling she was the sort of woman who always tried to look and act younger than she actually was. She waved them over and shouted, "over here! She's over here, officers!"

Trace and Ivan jogged over and as soon as they got within a decent distance to her, the woman said, "she's hysterical with tears, the poor thing. She's still tied to the tree, I couldn't undo the knot in the rope."

Trace and Ivan shared a look- they always were able to decide things just by a look. Ivan turned back to the woman and started to ask her all the necessary and routine questions whilst Trace walked past the woman and through the trees in the direction she had pointed to find the other woman. He found her easily enough: she was slumped to the ground, arms stretched behind her and around the tree, a shopping bag by her feet with the contents scattered on the floor. He took a step closer, a branch snapping under his feet and alerting the woman to his presence, causing her to look up at him.

Trace gasped. "Georgie? Oh my god!" He rushed forward and crouched down in front of her, cradling her face in his hands and looking into her grey eyes intensely, worry filling his body. "Baby, are you okay?"

Georgie, who's eyes were filled to the brim with tears, sobbed. "They've got Gracie, Trace. They grabbed her and then tied me here so I couldn't chase after them... What if they hurt her? It's all my fault, I shouldn't have let her run ahead of me like that!"

It felt like his heart just... stopped. Trace couldn't believe it. No. Not his daughter. This couldn't be happening. It was a dream. A very bad nightmare that he couldn't wake up from... Except it wasn't. It was real.

He shook his head, trying to stay strong for Georgie. It took all of his effort to do so. "It's not your fault," he said quietly. "You can't blame yourself, Georgie. We'll find her, okay? They won't hurt her. I won't let them."

"She knows nothing," Ivan's voice drifted to them as he joined them. "I sent her home."

"Ivan," Trace said in a shaky voice. "This is my fiancée, Georgie. The little girl who has been kidnapped is my daughter. Untie Georgie and then head back down to the station and get Simon to start looking at the CCTV tapes of this area immediately, no excuses."

"Oh shit," Ivan said in horror. "But Trace-"

"I'm not taking her to the station," he snapped. "I don't care what Simon said. I'm taking her home, don't argue with me. Untie her."

Ivan nodded silently and did as he was told. He helped Trace get Georgie to stand and drape one of her arms over each of their shoulders seeing as she was so hysterical that she could barely walk. "I'll drop you off at your house, it's better than you walking," Ivan said to the couple. Once they were all settled into the car, Ivan sighed and said, "we'll find your daughter, Georgie, don't you worry."

Georgie didn't reply, she simply held on tighter to Trace in the back seat. "Drop us off at my parents' home actually please, Ivan."

* * *

It was an uncomfortable silence that had fell upon the Benedict household. The whole family had gathered at the house to support each other over the kidnapping of one of their own. Georgie was sat on the sofa, a mug of hot chocolate gripped tightly in her hands, with Karla and Saul on either side of her. The rest of the family were scatted around the room, expect Trace and Victor who were having a private discussion in the kitchen.

Georgie could feel the eyes of her family looking over at her every now and again and could only guess what they were all thinking, but she knew from their body posture and the look in their eyes when they glanced at her, that they were worried she was going to lose it and go insane. First it had been her father, and now it was her daughter. The only biological family she had left had been taken from her and the Benedict's were shook up by Georgie's unnatural silence at a time like this. She didn't blame them really, and honestly, maybe they were right to worry because she felt like she really was going to be driven insane by this. It was all her fault. If she'd handed herself in to the mystery woman, the woman wouldn't have had to order her men to kidnap Gracie. If she hadn't took Gracie through the park, or said that she could go on the swings, or had stopped her from cutting through the trees... Gracie would still be here with them.

Hearing Georgie's thoughts, Karla rubbed Georgie's back and gently said, "stop blaming yourself, sweetie. It's not your fault."

Georgie didn't answer because she knew that no matter what anybody said, she wasn't going to stop blaming herself because she couldn't see how it was anybody else's fault. Gracie was somewhere out there, upset - maybe even hurt - and scared and wondering where her mum was and why she didn't save her. All the worst possibilities of what could be happening to Gracie tortured Georgie's mind and she was grateful when Trace and Victor walked back into the room because it distracted those thoughts, if only for a short amount of time.

Trace cast a glance towards Georgie and tried to smile reassuringly at her but the smile was quite obviously faked and pained. "Victor and I have been talking," he said to the family, "and we've decided that we're still going to go through with tonight's plans to ambush the house, with just a few changes."

Victor nodded and explained the rest himself. "Originally, we had planned to arrest the woman and those working for her and only shoot them if in defence or to protect Mark. Now however, we're guessing that Gracie is also in the house and when a child is involved we have to be more careful. We can't take the chance of people getting away or getting to either Mark or Gracie and hurting them, so we're going to give them one chance to get on the ground or surrender their weapons or we shoot. The original plan was to all go into together, take them by surprise and force, but now, the others are going to go in first through the front door. Trace and I, with a few other men, will guard the back in case any try to escape that way, and after a minute or so, me and Trace are going to sneak into the house. Trace will go and look for Gracie, I'll look for Mark, and when we find them, we'll get them out of there as quickly as possible."

"What about me?" Georgie finally spoke. All heads turned to look at her. "Am I going to be with Trace?"

"Georgie," Trace said hesitantly. "I don't think you should come with us. I know you're ready but I don't think you're in the right state of mind. You'll be distracted. I've had years of training to learn how to focus, but you'll be too busy thinking about Gracie to remember to protect yourself and we can't risk that."

Georgie took a deep, angry breath and gave Karla her drink before standing up. She didn't shout, she spoke in a calm, albeit strained, voice as she looked straight at Trace with her hands clutched into fists by her side. "Trace Saul Benedict, if you think I am going to sit here and wait around for God knows how long whilst my father _and_ my daughter are in danger, then you don't know me. You can't force me to stay here. If you won't take me with you, then I will go on my own; I know the address and I know the way there. If I have to go running into that house with no protective gear on and no gun, then I'll do it, no matter how dangerous it is. I am saving our daughter one way or another. Don't underestimate me."

Trace sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "You don't understand, Georgie... You'll be distracted by Gracie, Mark and the woman and I might not be able to protect you from everything in there! I don't want this woman to go shouting things at you, telling you who she is and causing you to stop and ruin the plan!"

"You say that like you know who she is." Trace simply tilted his head and stared at her. "Oh my god. Who is she, Trace? Tell me."

"I don't know," he shrugged. "That's the honest truth! But I've seen a picture of her and she looks so much like you, it can't be a coincidence. I think you're related to her."

"Well, that's another reason I have to go then," Georgie folded her arms across her chest. "She might not hurt me, I might be the only person able to stop her. Either way, I'm going. I've already failed Gracie once, I'm not doing it again. She needs me and I will be there for her."

"Trace," Victor spoke. "We might as well take her with us. It's better than her running in there on her own unprotected."

Trace looked at his brother and sighed. "Fine." He looked back at Georgie, directing his next words to her. "But if you get distracted enough to get yourself killed in there, I will never forgive you, Georgeanne." He spun around and left the room.

Georgie's loud, broken sigh ruined the silence before she ran out of the living room, chasing after Trace. "Trace!" She shouted after him, but he continued to walk away from her, going through the kitchen and out the patio doors into the back garden. "Hey!" She grabbed hold of his arm, forcing him to stop and turn to look at her, revealing the tears in his eyes. "Please don't be mad at me."

"Mad at you? Georgie, I'm furious because I'm terrified with worry for you. All I can think about is how scared Gracie is right now, whether or not she's hurt... Or worse. And now I have to worry about you as well and I feel like I'm going to lose my mind. If I lose either of you, or God forbid both of you, I don't think I could cope. I've lost you once, Georgie, I can't go through that again," he said in a frustrated tone, the endless tears continuing to flow down his cheeks like raindrops on a window.

"And you don't think I feel the same?" She retorted. "I'm in the exact same mindset as you right now, Trace. And if I just sit here, waiting to know whether you've both made it out of there alive, as well as my dad, I'll go crazy. I know I will. I have to do something, it's not in my nature to wait around for things to happen. You know that. Why didn't you tell me I'm related to the woman?"

"Because I knew that it would distract you," he replied. "I was going to tell you afterwards, I promise. Don't be mad at me, you would have done the same thing."

Georgie hesitated, before nodding. "I guess I would have... We need to get ready for tonight. I know you don't want me to go, but I can't stay here waiting. We'll go in there together, as a team, and we will save our daughter. Nothing is going to stop us, okay?" She reached up and cupped his face in both of her hands. "This is our Gracie we're talking about here... She needs us; both of us. We'll save her and my dad, and we'll bring them home and we'll be a proper family at last."

"I'm so scared, Georgie," his voice broke as he admitted it and wrapped his arms around her waist. "What if something's happened to her?"

"It hasn't. I'm her mother, I would know if we'd lost her; I'd feel it in my heart. I know I would. We just have to have faith, Trace. We're going to get her back, okay?"

Trace nodded and clung onto her tighter, leaning forward and burying his face in her neck. Georgie wrapped her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in his hair. She kissed his cheek as he quietly said, "you're right. Nothing is going to stop us from getting our daughter back."

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_Please leave reviews! xo_


	17. Chapter 17

**13th December 2012**

The time had dragged by, even with the SWAT team, Victor, Will, Trace and Georgie, all getting ready for the mission and preparing themselves. Victor had taken it upon himself to go over the plan countless times with Georgie as well as getting her to demonstrate defensive positions and how to handle a gun, proving that just like when they were younger, he still saw her as a sister and wanted to make sure she was as safe as possible in an event like this. The whole time Gracie and Mark were in her thoughts which both Victor and Trace chastised her for as they could see it written all over her face. _"Focus on the mission,"_ they repeated over and over again.

Darkness fell, the sky a clear dark blue with a few stars out shining, and the streetlamps on Ready Street had been turned off to better hide Victor's team. There were men on each side of the house in case someone tried to escape through windows, and three men had joined Victor, Trace and Georgie in climbing over the next door neighbour's garden wall and into the back garden of house number 143. Crouched down by the back door, they were waiting impatiently for the signal that the guys at the front had gone into the house.

Donned in a bulletproof jacket, dark clothing, hair tied into a tight bun and a gun in her hand, Georgie wasn't scared. Nor was she nervous or shaking with energy like she had anticipated. No, she was steady and determined to get in there, get her daughter and get her out of there alive. She couldn't wait to get her home and spoil her rotten and make her feel special and loved. She thought back to the day she had brought Gracie home after being born...

_Georgie's bedroom was a mess. It was only small and now with all the baby stuff cluttered on the floor and squashed into the drawers with her clothes, she could barely move around. Mark had promised that they'd move into a three-bedroomed house before the baby arrived but that hadn't happened yet unfortunately. The cot - a pine wood structure with pink blankets - was right next to Georgie's bed._

_She sat cross-legged on her bed, looking through the bars of the cot and at the sleeping baby wrapped up in it. Gracie had been born with a head full of dark hair, the exact same shade as Georgie remembered Trace's hair colour being. She briefly imagined what this moment would be like if she had stayed in Wrickenridge with Trace: she imagined him sat with her, looking at their baby girl and marveling at her beauty and how lucky they were. She sighed out loud._

_"Everything okay in here?" Mark appeared in the doorway. "Gracie looks like she's settled in well."_

_"Yeah, she's fine," Georgie said, swiping a tear from her cheek. "Dad... I should contact Trace, let him know that he's a dad. It's not right that he doesn't know; I could send him pictures or something."_

_Mark hesitated before answering. "He'll find some way to track you down and that could put you and Gracie in danger if anybody else finds out, we've discussed this."_

_"It's just not fair," she sobbed. "I always thought that me and Trace would do this together. Bring a baby home from the hospital, take care of her and bring her up until she's an adult. That we'd go through everything together and that can't happen now because you got yourself into some sort of trouble and we have to live on the run! How is that any sort of life for me or Gracie? I can't be happy because of your stupid mistakes or whatever you did that got us into this mess!"_

_Mark grimaced, the words touching his heart and hurting him. "Georgie," he said quietly. "One day you'll understand. I'm just trying to protect you. I know you hate me and I can deal with that if it means that you're safe."_

_She had no reply to that._

Now, Georgie still didn't fully understand who her dad was running from and why, she just guessed it was this woman. But what had happened? She resolved that at least she'd be able to ask Mark for the truth once Victor got him safely out of there.

Georgie looked at Trace who was looking around the small group, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. She still regretted that he hadn't been there to see Gracie grow from that small beautiful baby into the stunning child she was now. He didn't get the chance to feed her, to get up with her at night, to push her pram and show her off to everybody else. He had missed so much and that wasn't fair on any father. She silently made a promise to herself and Trace that they would have at least one more child and Trace wouldn't miss out on anything this time round; he deserved to experience all parts of being a father.

Trace looked at her and telepathically asked, _"you okay?"_

_"Yes,"_ she answered truthfully. _"I was thinking about our future. Strange time to, I know. How do you feel about trying for a baby after the wedding?"_

Trace grinned, excitement shimmering in his eyes. _"Are you being serious? I'd love to have another child, sweetheart."_

"They're in," Victor said out loud, presumably having heard the news that the others had gone in through the front door by the earpiece he was wearing. "Trace, Georgie, get ready to go in. We'll be entering straight into the kitchen, you two go straight upstairs and check out the rooms there, I'll go down into the basement, okay? If you don't find Mark or Gracie upstairs, come down to the basement unless I tell you otherwise telepathically, okay?"

They both nodded. Georgie wanted to tell him that she knew all that seeing as they'd gone over it a million times, but she was too focused on thinking of the mission to make a sarcastic remark. A minute later, Victor nodded at the pair and kicked down the door, holding his gun out in front of him. The three entered the kitchen, leaving the other three men to guard the back door, and Georgie's eyes widened in horror at the sight in front of her.

The body of an FBI agent was slumped against one of the kitchen counters, a bullet hole in his forehead and a line of blood down his face. Beside him lay the body of a man who must have been working for the woman, three bullet holes in his chest as he laid in a pool of his own blood. Georgie had never seen such a scene and it startled her in a horrifying way; she knew she would never stop having nightmares of the sight.

Trace gripped hold of her elbow and steered her towards the door which Victor had just gone through. "There's nothing we can do for them," he said gently. "Come on, let's find our daughter."

Georgie nodded and walked with him. The kitchen led straight into the hallway and Georgie became aware of the gunshots, shouts and people running about, that was going on in the hallway, living room, dining room and a second living room. There was so many people around that she couldn't tell who was winning or whether there were any actual arrests taking place. Her and Trace started walking up the spiral staircase, keeping close and both staying aware with their guns held in front of them with steady hands, ready to fire at any moment.

Stepping onto the wide landing, they both faltered at the sight of eight FBI agents dead on the floor. "I think she's upstairs," Georgie said. "She clearly had somebody protecting something up here, didn't she?"

Proving her right, four men stepped out of one of the room. The first had a gun in his hand and shot a bullet at them, narrowly missing them. Reacting quickly, Trace raised his own gun and with a loud crack the shot rang out, impossibly seeming louder than the others in the house, hitting the man straight in the chest. He stumbled forwards a few steps, clinging to his chest as blood seeped through his fingertips, before falling to his knees and eventually sprawling on the floor ungracefully.

One of the other men groaned in anger at his fallen friend and gestured for the other two to charge at Trace and Georgie with him. He was a tall, muscular man with a black goatee beard and short black hair gelled into spikes. He came towards Georgie whilst the other two went for Trace.

"Damn it," Trace mumbled, obvious worry for Georgie on his face. "Babe..."

"I'm okay," she said, quickly dodging out of the way of a bullet. "Duck!" She shouted just in time for Trace to duck. The man with the goatee reached her and she turned away from Trace, kicking the man with the goatee straight in the stomach as hard as she could. He grunted in pain and shock, the gun dropping from his hand as he fell backwards a few steps.

"Bitch," he spat out, quickly coming at her again, fist raised and aimed for her head. Georgie managed to step to the side just in time, causing him to hit the wall instead, but the man wasn't stupid and hit her in the stomach with his other hand. He laughed as she gasped in pain and took her momentary lapse in focus to his advantage by wrapping his hand around her neck, pressing her up against the wall and squeezing tightly, preventing her from breathing. She tried to struggle against him but it was useless; he was a lot stronger than her and she could feel herself growing fainter from lack of air.

_This is it,_ Georgie thought to herself. _I'm going to die._

She looked to the side, desperate for at least one last glance of Trace, her beloved soulfinder. He seemed to have already taken out of one of the men - he was now fallen on the floor, his head lolling off the top step and blood seeping from his chest. Tears filled Georgie's eyes at the sight of Trace losing the fight with the other man. He no longer had a gun - it must have been knocked out of his hand, she was guessing - and despite him being strong and fully trained to take on people in hand-to-hand combat, the man had got the upper hand somehow and had pushed Trace to the floor. Trace was laid on his stomach, the man pushing his face into the ground and holding a gun to his head.

"You and your friends think that you could win in here, did you?" The man taunted Trace. "You were wrong about that. Laurel treats us well here, she does. And she's going to change the whole world for savants. You're an idiot for not following her. And now, I'm going to kill you." Georgie could hear the smile on his face even with his back to her.

He pressed the gun harder into Trace's head and Georgie couldn't stand the sight of it, or the thought of him actually shooting her Trace. It took all of her strength but she managed to lift her arm and point the gun in the general direction of the man, praying that she'd shoot him, that she wouldn't miss or disastrously end up shooting Trace instead. She'd never shot anybody in her life and she'd been hoping she'd never have to; she knew that the memory of killing somebody would always haunt her but even with that in mind, she knew that she could do this. She could do this to save Trace's life no matter what the consequences for her would be.

BANG.

Her eyes flew open; she hadn't even known that she'd closed them. She'd done it! She'd shot him... In the neck. He fell sideways off Trace, rolling onto the floor. Trace rolled over and sat up, a frown on his face as he looked at the body beside him. He looked up at Georgie, first shock and then fury portrayed on his face and the sight of the man with the goatee strangling Georgie, who was now a deathly pale white and could feel herself moving closer to the darkness.

Trace quickly got to his feet and rushed over, grabbing hold of the man's shoulders and pulling him backwards so he let go of Georgie. As Georgie bent forwards, hands on her knees, and wheezed to catch her breath, Trace pushed the man to the floor and started hitting him repeatedly, furious at him for even daring to try and kill his soulfinder. Georgie watched in horror, never having seen Trace attack somebody like that. "Trace," she said, her voice coming out in a croak. "Trace, he's unconscious, you can stop now. _Trace._"

She finally got through to him and he stopped, breathing heavily. He quickly got to his feet again and walked over to her quickly, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug. "God, Georgie... Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay."

"Yes," she nodded. "Trace, I'm fine, I promise."

"You saved me," he looked down at her in awe. "No offence, but I didn't think you'd actually shoot anyone."

"Me neither," she replied, her breathing still a little shaky. "Trace, that man. He said 'Laurel', that their leader was called Laurel. That's what my mum was called, Trace. What if...?" Her question trailed off but the implication was clear.

"I don't know," he answered honestly, shrugging. "There's only one way to find out." He looked towards the closed door of the room the men had come out of. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. I need to know and we need to find Gracie."

"Okay, then," he nodded and linked his fingers through hers. "Keep hold of your gun, I don't know where mine dropped to."

She nodded and squeezed his hand and together they walked to the door, opening it slowly. It creaked as it revealed the room: a bedroom with a four-poster bed, a mahogany desk, a black swivel chair, and not much else. A woman sat on the chair, blonde and dressed in black, smiling at them calmly as if there weren't gunshots sounding from downstairs and dead bodies littered around her house.

"Hello," she said in a pleasant, almost delighted tone. "I can't begin to describe how lovely it is to finally be face-to-face with you again, Georgeanne."

"Who are you?" Georgie asked in a shaky voice, her palm sweating in Trace's hand.

The smile grew. "I think you've already figured that out, haven't you? I'm your mother."

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_I apologize for it being quite short. The next chapter will be longer. Please leave reviews! xo_


	18. Chapter 18

**13th December 2012**

It was one of those moments where everything around you just stops. It didn't matter that there were gunshots and shouting in the background, it didn't matter that Trace was stood next to her holding tightly onto her hand; it felt like there was only Georgie and Laurel in the room, in the world, and for a moment Georgie stopped breathing. She had suspected this was the truth but it didn't seem real until Laurel had actually said the words. Her head ached and her mouth was dry, all she wanted was to turn around and run away. But she knew she couldn't. She had to be brave.

"I don't believe you." She shook her head, her eyes never leaving Laurel. "My mum died in a house fire."

"Oh that," Laurel waved a hand in the air as if it was nothing. "I had to fake my own death, it was the only way to leave and be able to live my life how I wanted without having to answer any questions."

"Why would you do that? What sort of mother would leave her daughter like that?"

"I didn't want you," Laurel replied with a shrug. "I didn't want to be a mum and I didn't love your dad. I changed my mind a year later. It was a bit of a shock to Mark, mind you, me turning up out of the blue like that and demanding that he let me take you with me. But do you know what he did, Georgeanne? He ran away with you and hid from me, never told you the truth that I was alive, and prevented you from having a mother in your life. He stopped me from seeing you."

"He wouldn't do that without a reason."

"Mark worried that I would hurt you or never take you back to him. He thought he was protecting you," she scoffed. "But tell me, how is making you live without a mum protecting you? It's vile."

"I'm glad I never knew you," Georgie replied bitterly. "I don't need you in my life. So is all this why you abducted my dad?"

"Partly. But like I told you over the phone, he has some information I want. He knows what the weapon is - the weapon that can end the war between savants - and he knows where it is. And I will find out eventually, sooner or later." Laurel casually smiled and started to make her way towards the door calmly, as if they were all friends and Trace wasn't pointing a loaded gun in her direction. Turning around, she sighed when she saw the two of them were still stood there. "Well, are you coming or not? I presume you want to see your daughter again. Yes? Follow me, then."

She walked through the doorway, turned left and disappeared from sight. Georgie looked at Trace with a question in her eyes. When Trace nodded, they followed after Laurel, their fingers still linked; Georgie felt like she'd fall apart if he wasn't holding onto her and was again grateful that he was there with her. Laurel opened a door shortly further down the corridor which revealed a set of stairs, leading up to the attic.

_"Things are wrapping up down here,"_ Victor's voice suddenly came into both Trace and Georgie's minds. _"The shootout's finished, but we've lost some men. No Mark or Gracie down here. Are you having any luck?"_

_"We've found the mystery woman- Laurel Davis. Georgie's mother. She's leading us up to the attic, said that's where Gracie is. Don't follow us up just yet, she might hurt Gracie if you do. Wait ten minutes and if we're not down by then, come up with the team, okay?"_

_"Okay,"_ Victor replied. _"Ten minutes. I'm counting."_

Georgie didn't know what she'd been expecting to see when they emerged into the attic - maybe a number of Laurel's men with Mark and Gracie being held hostage - but she hadn't thought it would be empty. The lights were switched on, making the room bright and making it obvious that there was nothing and nobody in the attic along with them.

She turned to her right to glare at Laurel. "You said they were here," she snapped. "Tell me where my daughter is or I swear to God I will ki-"

"Now, now," Laurel interrupted, shaking her head. "I don't know where you get that anger from, it's very unlike the person you usually are. Darling, I didn't say they were up here in the attic, I simply stated that I would lead you to your daughter. Peter here is going to take us to her," she gestured in front of her.

Confused, Georgie turned back around and saw a man stood there. A man who handed been stood there just seconds ago. "Who are you?"

"Your mother's soulfinder, Peter," the man introduced himself. "Georgeanne, I have to offer my sincere apologies for all the trouble that your mother and I have caused you and your family, but you have to understand that our intentions were honourable. We just want a better world for savants so we can be happy; we want you and Gracie to be a part of our lives, a part of our family." The strange thing was, Georgie thought, that he seemed truly to believe the words he was saying. He seemed... Kind. It was a shame that he'd been brainwashed by Laurel into thinking all of this was the right thing to do.

Instead of accepting his apology or arguing with him about how this most certainly was not the right thing to do, she simply said, "just take me to my daughter."

He nodded once. "Very well," he said before walking over to the trio. He took hold of Laurel's hand and put his other hand on Georgie's shoulder. "Close your eyes."

Trace and Georgie shared a glance before closing their eyes. A moment later, Georgie felt a rippling in the air around her and gasped, the warm temperature of the heated attic suddenly turning menacingly cold. "You can open your eyes now," Peter said gently.

So she did. And she noticed that she was no longer in the attic but was in a damp and sterile-smelling room with dark walls and a wooden floor. Laurel and Peter stood to the side of her and Trace, and four other men lined up against the wall in the front of them, unmoving; they made sure to hold their guns in plain sight. That made Georgie even more conscious of the fact that she had a gun in her hand, but Trace didn't and she wasn't sure if she had it in her to shoot somebody again. The odds of getting out of here alive were heavily against them and Georgie felt her heart stop in her chest.

It started again when she heard a familiar voice behind her say, "mummy?"

Spinning around, Georgie gasped at the sight in front on her. Mark was sat on a wooden chair, his hands and legs tied to restrain him from moving, and he had tape over his mouth. Gracie sat on the floor beside him, looking tired and terrified, clinging onto Mark's left leg.

"Gracie!" Georgie ran across the room, dropped to the floor and let go of the gun, before pulling her daughter into her arms and holding her tightly to her chest. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry she got you. I'll never let anybody hurt you ever again, I promise. I love you so much, Gracie, I love you."

Gracie, who had let go of her grandfather and was now clinging onto Georgie, wept into Georgie's shoulder as she mumbled, "I love you too, mum."

"Ahem," Laurel cleared her throat. "Well, I hate to break up this beautiful reunion but we still have a few matters to get through."

Still holding Gracie in her arms, Georgie angled her body around to face Laurel, her eyes widening. Trace was knelt on the floor with his hands behind his head and one of Laurel's men - an Asian man in a red jacket - had a gun pressed against Trace's head.

"What are you doing?" Georgie asked slowly and cautiously. "Laurel, let him go."

"Hmm... No." She smiled. "Not yet, anyway. Georgeanne, this can all be sorted out easily now and you will all leave alive... Probably. No harm will come to your dearest soulfinder if your father gives me the information I need. So far he has refused to tell me anything, but will he tell me to save Gracie and Trace?"

"What about me?"

"You're my daughter, I could never hurt you," she said as if it were all that simple. "Well, I will try not to anyway. Take the tape off Mark's mouth. Now."

Georgie moved to let go of Gracie, who whimpered in protest and held on tighter. "Shh," Georgie said, stroking her hair. "It's okay, sweetheart. I'm still going to be right here, okay? I'm not going to leave you."

After a short moment of hesitation, Gracie trusted her mother and let go of her. Georgie knelt up and pulled the tape off Mark's mouth, wincing when he flinched in pain. "Dad," she whispered, holding her hand to his cheek. "Are you okay?"

Mark nodded and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine sweetie, don't worry worry about me." He turned his head around, Georgie's hand dropping away from him, and glared at Laurel. "That's enough, Laurel. Let the boy go, this is between you and me; you didn't have to get the kids involved."

"Oh, but I did," she replied. "You wouldn't tell me what the weapon is and I _need_ to know. I am going to win this war, I'm going to prove that savants are superior to stupid, ordinary human beings. And if you don't tell me Mark, I will kill Trace Benedict, then I will kill Gracie and then... As much as it will upset me, I will kill our daughter. It's entirely up to you, Mark. What's it going to be?" She smiled menacingly.

"Don't tell her, Mark," Trace spat. "Let her kill me, I don't care. Fight her and get Georgie and Gracie out of here. You cannot let her find this weapon, whatever it is. She'll destroy the world. _Do not tell her._"

"Shut up!" Laurel hissed as Georgie and Gracie held onto each other, sobbing over Trace's words. "I'll kill all three of them if I have to Mark, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. Make your decision: tell me, or they all die."

Mark looked at Georgie, straight into her eyes, and in that instant, she knew what he was going to do. There was a steel resolve in those eyes of his, determination to protect his family- it was something he had always done, ever since Georgie was little and Laurel wanted to take her away, and he wasn't going to change that now.

Georgie didn't want him to tell Laurel the truth about the weapon. She knew that as soon as Laurel found out, she would stop at nothing to get the weapon, and she really would destroy the world as they knew it. Humans would suffer and die, as would savants who stood up against her. She was evil. And if the weapon really did have the power to end the savant war, to make Laurel successful, nobody would stand a chance against her.

But... If Mark didn't tell Laurel about the weapon, Georgie would have to watch Trace and Gracie being murdered in front of her own eyes. Her soulmate and her daughter. What woman would want to see that? What woman wouldn't want to die herself after seeing that? So there was a part of her that was screaming at Mark to tell Laurel, whatever the consequences for the rest of the world were, and she knew that was selfish of her, but she couldn't help herself from wishing it.

However, it wasn't her choice. It was Mark's. And he was choosing to put the rest of the world in danger for the sake of his family. Whether that was selfish, brave, weak, or caring of him to do so, Georgie wasn't sure, but she didn't really care. His determination to never change his protective nature was something to admire, even if other people would have made a different decision.

So when Mark looked Laurel straight in the eyes and said, "okay, I'll tell you what you need to know," Georgie was proud of her father for always staying true to himself and wished she had the strength to be just like him.


	19. Chapter 19

_Author's note: I don't usually do this, but I would like to dedicate this chapter to butterflylion14 who has reviewed on almost every chapter of this story which I appreciate so so much :-)_

_A few things:_

_1. This chapter was really hard for me to write as I wasn't quite sure how it should all play out but I did my best. I tried to make it as emotional as I could near the end which you'll see what I mean when you read it. I hope it's convincing enough!_

_2. Georgie's cousin, Persephone Carter, is mentioned in this chapter. Pay attention because she will be the main character in one of my future stories! (right now I'm writing Love & War, then I'll write Zed's story, then it'll be Will's story). Persephone will be in Will's story. (In case you don't know how to pronounce Persephone, it's: per-sef-a-knee)_

_3. The next chapter, Chapter 20, will be the final chapter of this story! _

_4. Please leave reviews once you've finished reading? ;D_

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**13th December 2012**

The definition of despair is: "the complete loss or absence of hope."

Despair. One word; seven letters. Just one little word. Yet that one little word had so much meaning to it and described all of what Trace was feeling at that moment so easily and effortlessly.

He felt broken and weak; pathetic and helpless. To see the two most important girls in his life in so much danger, and to see them so upset and scared, was breaking his heart and he longed to get up and run over to them. He wanted to pull them into his arms and tell them both how much he loved them and he wanted to protect them from harm for the rest of their lives. And to hear Mark say that he was going to give Laurel the information she needed so she could destroy the world, made him feel like Mark was giving up as if he knew they stood no chance at all of getting out of here alive.

Somewhere in this room, there was a very strong telepath stopping him from connecting to Victor and telling him that they were somewhere else, that they were all probably going to die. He could feel Victor trying to reach his mind, could feel him banging away at the walls someone had put around Trace's mind, and he knew that without getting in touch with Vick there wasn't a chance in hell of them all getting out of here alive.

He had lost all hope and he felt like he'd disappointed Georgie and Gracie by not protecting them like he should have. He was a disgrace of a soulfinder and a father, and he vowed that if they miraculously did make it out of here, he would always protect them and do everything he could to make sure they were happy. He felt like he owed that to them, and to Mark who had kept the girls alive and relatively safe all these years.

His heart ached in his chest, far more pain than he had ever felt, as if he were absorbing everybody else's pain and tears threatened to make an appearance when he caught another sight of Georgie and Gracie crying.

But to describe all of this in one simple sentence: Trace was in despair.

The guy behind him pressed the gun more forcefully against Trace's head as Laurel impatiently said, "well, I'm waiting! Tell me now, Mark, otherwise Trace Benedict dies."

"No, daddy," he heard Gracie whimper before she was quickly shushed by her comforting mother.

"Fine, fine!" Mark cried out before letting out a long sigh. "The weapon isn't what you think it is. It's not a gun, or a machine, or any kind of inanimate object... The weapon is... My niece," his voice came out strangled and it was clear to Trace that he hated himself for telling Laurel this. "My brother James has a soulfinder called Alison who can tell what a person's savant power is just by looking at them. When their daughter, my niece, was just three days old, Alison could tell what her power was, or was going to be when she was older, I guess. They named her Persephone Hope- Persephone means 'the bringer of destruction', and they knew she had the power to destroy everything. But they _hoped_ that she would be a good person. Alison always was a very sentimental person, especially when it came to her daughter's name.

Like everybody has to, they informed the savant net of their daughter's power as soon as they knew about it. The net told them that Persephone could be viewed as a weapon to end the civil war between us savants, so my brother and Alison went into hiding, taking Persephone with them."

"And what is young Persephone's power, then? Surely you know that. She'll be what, twenty years old now? Her power would have developed perfectly by now," Laurel pointed out.

"I don't know what her power is, I swear. James never told me, just in case something like this happened. I don't even know where they are. They went to Alaska when they first moved away, but they said they were going to constantly travel. That's all I know, Laurel, I mean it."

Laurel didn't look impressed. "You know, my brother Lawrence always said that you wouldn't know everything."

"Lawrence. That's the man that tried to kill me and Gracie," Georgie spoke up.

"He was hoping it wouldn't come to that," Laurel shrugged. "He doesn't agree with me. He wanted to find your dad and warn him that I knew where he was. Unbeknownst to my dear brother of course, I had already found your father. He thought that if he killed you, I would never find you and Mark and I would never get the information I wanted. His intentions were good, but he did try to kill you so he's not all good." She turned back to Mark. "Mark, Mark, Mark. Honey, you know I need more information than that."

"I don't know anything else!"

"And I don't believe you," she snapped. Trace noticed that Georgie was whispering something quietly to Gracie, but his attention was more focused on Laurel than to think of what the girls were talking about. "But no matter, I have their names now so I'm sure it won't take me very long to find them." She sighed loudly as if her next words were tough on her. "I'm afraid that I'm still going to have to kill all of you though. I can't have you running to the net and the other Carters and telling them I'm on my way, can I?"

"You lying bitch," Mark spat. "I hope you rot in hell, you fucking psychotic slut!"

"Do you really talk that way in front of your granddaughter, a child? Mark, you really are losing it." She looked at the guy behind Trace and said, "Omar, shoot him. He should be lucky he's the first one to go."

"My pleasure," Trace could hear the grin in Omar's voice. He pressed the gun harder against Trace's head - hard enough to leave a nasty bruise - and Trace closed his eyes, waiting for the bullet to pierce his brain.

But the shot never rang out. Instead, he heard a collective gasp echo around the room. He opened his eyes and saw Georgie stood up, her eyes wide open as she stared at something intently, power and determination in her look.

Trace looked up and saw Omar in the air, having dropped the gun in his shock, looking at Georgie as if she were some sort of terrifying monster. At first, Trace was confused, but then he remembered: Georgie's power was to control gravity. "Let me down! Let me down now!" Omar shouted.

"How about no?" Georgie replied, a strained yet amused smile on her face.

One by one, Laurel and Peter and the other three men, slowly raised up into the air also. Laurel laughed crazily and shouted out, "you think that this is going to stop us from winning, daughter? We know about Persephone Carter now and we'll find her! None of you are leaving here alive today, especially not my bastard of a husband!"

She raised her hand to reveal a gun, aimed it towards Mark and shot. The gunshot echoed loudly in the room and Trace saw Georgie's face slip as frightened tears filled her eyes. He could tell that she wanted to turn around, see if her father was still alive, but was determined to keep her concentration on the others to keep them in the air.

Trace quickly got to his feet and ran over to Mark, whose head was forward on his chest and his body slumped in the chair. Blood stained the chest of his shirt right near his heart, a hell of a lot of blood, and Trace feared the worst. He gently put his fingers to Mark's neck, desperately searching for a pulse.

"Trace?!" Georgie called back to him in a panicked voice.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Trace stood up and walked over towards his fiancée, putting a hand on her back and kissing her cheek. "I'm sorry, baby. There's no pulse."

"No," she sobbed, still staring forwards. "That can't be... He can't be gone."

"He's dead, Georgie. I'm so sorry," Trace said, a lump forming in his throat. "So sorry."

Instead of answering, Georgie held her hand out and said, "Gracie, remember what I told you to do?"

Taking her mother's hand, Gracie nodded and said, "yes, mum."

"Do it now," she said before quickly dropping the group of people to the floor.

Before any of them could even stand up, a large gust of wind blew through the room, coming from nowhere it seemed, and creating a mini storm in the room and flinging the others about. It stopped when they were all sat on the ground in a row, their backs against the wall, breathing heavily and trying to get themselves together but still being too exhausted to move.

Georgie let go of Gracie's hand and bent down to pick her gun up off the floor before walking over to Laurel and pointing the gun straight at her head.

With a shaky laugh Laurel said, "you won't shoot your own mother."

Trace moved to grab hold of Gracie, picking her up and holding her on his hip as they watched Georgie say to Laurel, "do not underestimate me. I am stronger than you think."

"Still though, you won't kill me," Laurel almost smiled.

"You killed my dad!" Georgie exploded. "He didn't deserve to die, he was a good man! A good dad. The best dad." Tears streamed down her face but it was as if she didn't even notice. "If anybody in this room deserves to die, it's you! You're crazy and deluded. We don't need to be superior to humans. If anything, it should be the other way around. They're better people than we are. Sure, they have wars and they fight, but nothing like savant wars at all. They don't destroy each other's minds, they don't go as horrific as you do. All my dad ever wanted to do was to protect me and Gracie and he did a hell of a good job doing that. Who are you to take him away from us, huh? What's stopping me from killing you right now, Laurel? Or killing Peter, your soulfinder? Let's see how you cope with that!"

"I wouldn't care!" Laurel shouted. "And you're not going to do it anyway because you know that your dad deserved to die!"

"NO, HE DIDN'T!" Georgie screamed. She held her arm out straight, her body stiff and her finger trembling on the trigger of the gun. Trace knew that stance: it was the killing stance.

"Daddy, don't let her do it," Gracie whispered. "She's not a killer."

"No, she's not," he quickly kissed his daughter on the cheek before walking over to Georgie with Gracie still on his hip. "Georgie," he said gently. "Georgie."

"What?!"

"Don't do this," he spoke softly, hoping to get through to her. "You're right, she deserved to die, not your father, but this isn't the right way. You'll regret killing her and you know why? Because you're not a murderer. You're not like her, you're like your dad- you're a good, kind-hearted person. You don't need to do this, especially not in front of Gracie. She'll go to prison for what she's done, a savant prison which will be tough on her. She deserves to suffer, not to have a quick death. Georgie, please. You'll never forgive yourself if you do this."

For one full minute, Georgie didn't move. Trace wasn't even sure if she was breathing she was that still. But eventually, she lowered the gun and looked away from Laurel and to her family. She knelt to the floor and gently put the gun there before standing up straight and whispering, "Gracie. I'm sorry you had to see all of that."

"It's okay mummy," Gracie replied in a soft tone of voice, sounding older and wiser than she was. "Everybody goes a little crazy at one point, I don't blame you. Grandpa wouldn't have wanted you to kill her. I'm sorry your daddy's dead, mummy."

"Yeah, me too sweetheart," Georgie said, openly crying. She nodded sideways at the group of mostly passed out people. "Do your thing."

Gracie smiled and looked down at them. Slowly, a thick wall of frozen ice formed itself in front of the group before closing in on the sides and the top, leaving a small gap for them to still get air. The walls were so thick that there was no way they'd be able to break through it themselves.

Trace wrapped his spare arm around Georgie's shoulders and said, "let's get out of here. I'll contact Victor, we'll figure out where we are, and these lot will all go to prison. And then we'll have our happy ending, okay?"


	20. Chapter 20

**25th December 2012**

To say it was Christmas Day and the middle of winter, the weather had actually turned out really nice. It wasn't snowing or raining, the sun was out and shining brightly as a gentle breeze stirred the air. It was the perfect day for a perfect wedding and they of course took advantage of that fact.

The whole family were now squashed into Saul and Karla's living room, laughing and arguing like a family does at Christmas, as well as being preoccupied with their presents. Karla rushed in and out of the room to constantly check on the Christmas dinner - they'd offered help but she'd refused it - she was cooking. There was a pleasant vibe in the air following the wedding they'd had in the back garden just two hours before and a true, peaceful happiness settled over the family for the first time in a long time.

From his seat on one of the wooden kitchen chairs they'd dragged into the room, Trace looked over at his new wife. Georgie was seated on the sofa next to Gracie, watching as Yves - who was sat on Gracie's other side - showed Gracie how to use the iPad he'd bought her for Christmas- an expensive present for a nine year old, but Yves was just happy to have somebody he could spoil. For the wedding, Georgie had worn a simple white dress that she'd decorated herself with white flowers petals and despite it not being an actual wedding dress, she had looked so beautiful that it had brought tears to Trace's eyes. She had now changed out of that dress into jeans and a t-shirt, but only after Karla was satisfied she had enough photos of the new Mr and Mrs Trace Benedict.

Originally, Karla had wanted to plan a big fairytale church wedding that the whole town would be invited to, and Georgie had gone along with that plan... Until Mark died and was unable to walk her down the aisle.

At first after that dreadful day, Georgie had been depressed. She'd cried herself to sleep every night while Trace held her and did his best to comfort her; she'd barely spoken to anybody and barely even left the bedroom, leaving Trace to take care of Gracie on his own; she'd woken up screaming from nightmares every night yet refused to talk about them. It had broken his heart to see her like that, but he understood that she was grieving and he needed to be patient and give her time.

It was just over a week later when Gracie had enough of not seeing her mum and rushed into the bedroom, so startled to see her mum in such a state that she'd burst out crying. That had been a waking call for Georgie and she'd immediately started to get her act together. Even now she was still grieving and upset, but she was now able to smile and laugh and Trace admired her strength at getting through this.

After Mark's death, Karla cancelled the wedding at Trace's request as they didn't think the wedding was going to happen so soon. But it was at Georgie's insistence that they got married today in the back garden, with only their family there around them. Saul had got an officiating license so he was the one to marry them and it was a sweet, personal ceremony that Trace preferred to the idea of a big wedding with strangers around them.

Georgie looked up at Trace, feeling his eyes on her, and smiled. He smiled too before saying telepathically, _"you wanna head outside for a bit?"_

Georgie was quick to nod and they both slipped out of the room without saying a word and headed into the back garden, sitting down next to each other on the top step of the patio. Georgie rested her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her and for a moment, they just sat like that in silence, looking at the circle of rose petals on the ground that they'd stood in when they got married just hours ago.

"I can't believe we're actually married," Trace said, the first one to break the silence. "Who would have thought it? I still remember the day we met... September 1993. I was being bullied by some classmate and you pushed him over and became the first person to choose to sit next to me. Then you just asked if I wanted to be best friends," he chuckled.

"Yeah, things were a lot easier back then," Georgie replied with a fond smile. "I remember your mum explaining to me what a soulfinder was and how it means we're special friends for life."

They both laughed at the memory before Trace added, "my mum nearly blew up when your dad didn't seem happy about it and said that you had a choice and didn't have to be with me." It wasn't until he heard Georgie sigh that he realised he had mentioned Mark and remembered that ever since that day she hadn't really spoke about him at all. She cried out for him in her sleep, but that was the only time she even mentioned him. Trace opened his mouth to apologize but Georgie interrupted him, speaking quietly.

"He was just trying to protect us both," she said. "He knew that eventually I'd have to leave and that it'd be easier on both of us if we didn't know that we were soulfinders. He didn't want either of us to get hurt, he really liked you even though he was horrible to you for years. When he found us in bed together... He knew that it had gone too far and that's why we left. He realised how attached we were and knew that if we didn't leave then, I never would have gone with him and he was terrified of not having the option to run in case Laurel found us."

"I can understand that. He wanted to protect his daughter's life, even if it meant taking her away from her soulfinder. As much as it would kill me to hurt her, I would do the same thing with Gracie if it meant saving her life. I'm not going to lie, Georgie: for years, I hated your father. I hated him more than I've ever hated anyone in my life and I used to fantasize about finding you and hurting your dad for taking you away from me." He paused for a moment, before adding, "but I don't hate him anymore. I forgive him and I'm grateful to him because he kept you safe for so long, you and Gracie, and we might not be here today and together if it weren't for him. He was the best kind of man anyone could ever hope to be and I'll never forget him. As cliché as it sounds, he's my role model."

"I miss him so much, Trace," Georgie whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear. "So much. In that place with Laurel, I barely got to speak to him, and before that I didn't even know where he was. I remember what it was like so perfectly. Waiting three days for him to come home from a supermarket before finally accepting that he wasn't coming home. That something had happened to him, that it was probably whoever he'd running from that whole time. I remembered that he told me to go as far away as I could if that happened, and I couldn't think of anywhere but Wrickenridge."

"Well, I'm glad that you came to find me," he kissed her on the head gently. "Even though it wasn't under the best circumstances, we found each other again and that's what's most important."

"Yeah, it is," she smiled. "I really wish he could have been at the wedding, he would have been so happy."

"He would have," Trace nodded. "And he would have been so proud to have a daughter like you."

Georgie looked up at Trace with a smile on her face. "Thank you. Trace, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

She was about to reply but was interrupted when Karla opened the patio doors and said, "there you two are. Come on, dinner's ready."

Hand in hand, they walked back into the house and joined the rest of the family at the dining table. They'd recently purchased a new table that took up practically all of the dining room, but it was big enough for all of them, plus more people. Nobody mentioned that Karla had obviously got such a big table because she was hoping the other boys would find their soulfinders soon and they'd be joining them for family meals.

Georgie and Trace took the last two seats, across from Gracie. Eventually, the giddiness and the chatter of their family died down as they all tucked into the food, eager to start eating as they hadn't had much to eat all day. The smell of the food filled the air, strong and mouthwatering, and the sound of people chewing and knives scraping across the plate was the only thing filling the silence.

Until Gracie said loudly, "so mum, did you tell dad that you're having another baby?"

Georgie froze before mumbling, "I hadn't got around to it yet, but thanks for that, Gracie."

"Wait, what?" Trace asked, ignoring the fact that all his brothers and his parents were now looking their way, eyes wide with shock. "What is she talking about?"

Georgie sighed and put her fork and knife on the plate before turning to look at Trace. "I was about to tell you outside, but then Karla interrupted so I was going to tell you later. I'm pregnant, Trace. I'm only a few weeks along, but definitely pregnant."

"Oh. My. God." Were the only words that Trace seemed capable of saying. He was in shock; it wasn't something he'd been expecting to hear anytime soon. No, they hadn't been using protection but they weren't planning on even hoping for a baby until a short while after the wedding. A baby... His own little baby. Yes, he had Gracie, and she was so important to him and he loved her so much, but he regretted and hated the fact he hadn't seen her as a baby, hadn't had the chance to see her being born and watch her take her first steps and say her first words... But now with his second child, he'd be able to do all of that and be there right from the start.

"Mum told me first," Gracie said proudly. "I wasn't supposed to tell anybody. Oops. But I don't care, I'm going to be a big sister! I hope I'm a good big sister."

"You'll be a brilliant sister," Victor was the one to answer her. "The best."

Trace saw Gracie grinning out of the corner of his eye but his attention was focused only on Georgie. "You haven't really said anything for the past two minutes," Georgie said nervously. "You are happy about this, aren't you?"

"Yes," he nodded quickly. "I can't believe it!" He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, laughing in absolute delight. "This is amazing, I love you so much, Georgie. So much."

"Oh, this is just perfect!" Karla exclaimed, dabbing at her teary eyes with the corner of her sleeve. "A wedding and a pregnancy announcement all in one day! And on Christmas, too!"

"Oh yeah, it's brilliant," Zed said bitterly as Trace and Georgie pulled apart. "The best news I've ever heard. Trace gets his soulfinder for a wife _and_ two children, it's amazing that he's got his happily ever after, isn't it?" Heavy sarcasm was evident in his voice. "Meanwhile, the rest of don't even know who our soulfinders are, but that doesn't matter, does it? As long as darling Trace gets everything the rest of us want too."

"Zed," Trace said to his youngest brother. "I'm sorry that you're unhappy and haven't found your soulfinder yet. It was pure luck that I found Georgie at a young age and I know that it's not fair on the rest of you, but you'll find her eventually. You just have to keep hoping."

"Yeah right, whatever," Zed snapped angrily. "I'm come to face to fact I'll never find her, but I'm still hurting about it. But does mum care at all? No, she doesn't! She's too bothered about you and Georgie because you're giving her grandchildren just like she's always dreamed of."

"Zed, that is enough." Saul spoke, his voice not loud but authorative and strict. "You're bitter and hurting, we all understand that, especially your brothers, but that is not an excuse to talk to your brother, your sister-in-law, or your mother that way. Either apologize right now or you can go upstairs to your bedroom and forget about your dinner. Your decision, Zed."

Zed glared at his dad for a full minute before sighing and looking at his mum. "I'm sorry mum," he said. "I know that you care about us all and that you love us all. So I'm sorry." He looked at Trace and Georgie. "I'm sorry to you two, as well. I think it's great that you're having another baby and I'm happy for you both, I really am."

"Thank you, Zed," Georgie smiled kindly at him.

He smiled back but sadness was still clear in his eyes as he looked away and went back to eating. The others soon followed his lead and the tension eased away slowly, leaving a more relaxed environment amongst the family.

_Yes,_ Trace thought to himself. _Zed's right. I've found my happily ever after; I have everything I could ever dream of, a perfect little family of my own. But my brothers? I can only pray that Fate is as kind to them as it was to me..._

* * *

_Author's note: So there it was, the final chapter! Thank you to everybody who has reviewed/favourite/followed this story and I hope you've enjoyed reading it :-)_

_The story's name is from the song Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift and the picture portraying Georgie is Emilia Clarke._

_This story continues in Love & War which I have already started posting chapters to so go and check it out if you haven't already :D_

_Please let me know what you thought of the ending to the story, I hope it was good enough for you all!_

_Charlotte xo_


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